Metagame Pokébilities

[Ivy]

Magnificent (albeit outdated) banner by @hambor12 (external link)
Credit to Throbulator36 for the concept. Programming by urkerab
Co-lead by me and typhlosion787
Approved by drampa's grandpa and in the hills ​

Premise
All of a Pokémon's obtainable abilities are active simultaneously.

Introduction
Ever wished that Salamence can have both of its abilities—Intimidate and Moxie at the same time? Have you desired that a Pokémon could use all of its abilities to their full potential? Here is the OM for you!
In this meta, a Pokémon can have all of its abilities at the same time. Here's is the original thread from when it was a Pet Mod. An example is if you use Clodsire, it will have all of its abilities: Water Absorb, Poison Point, & Unaware, at the same time. This gives it a huge buff since all of these abilities are quite useful.

FAQ
What happens if a Pokémon's Trace is activated?
Trace is implemented to copy a single ability from the foe randomly, as it would in doubles battles.

How does Rockruff work? Four abilities!
Certain abilities are exclusive to differently-obtained and tiered formes, like Ash-Greninja's Battle Bond. Rockruff's fourth ability is actually implemented as a separate forme (and breeds as such in-game), despite not being tiered separately. This means that if you select Own Tempo, it will be the special Rockruff with Own Tempo and no other abilities. Otherwise, it's a normal Rockruff and has all three other abilities. Of course, nobody in their right mind would use Rockruff, but it's the only valid example for this mechanic currently in gen 9.

What about OP abilities like Shadow Tag?
These are banned on a per-Pokémon basis, since it would be challenging and awkward to program only some of their abilities to be enabled. You can see this in the banlist below.

Bans

• Standard OMs, Sleep Clause Mod, Min Source Gen=9
• Baton Pass, Last Respects, Shed Tail, King's Rock
• Arceus, Annihilape, Basculegion-Female, Baxcalibur, Calyrex-Ice, Calyrex-Shadow, Chi-Yu, Dialga, Conkeldurr, Deoxys, Deoxys-Attack, Dialga-Origin, Espathra, Eternatus, Excadrill, Flutter Mane, Giratina, Giratina-Origin, Groudon, Ho-Oh, Iron Bundle, Koraidon, Kyogre, Kyurem-Black, Kyurem-White, Landorus-I, Lugia, Lunala, Magearna, Mewtwo, Miraidon, Mewtwo, Ogerpon-Hearthflame, Palafin, Palkia, Palkia-Origin, Porygon-Z, Rayquaza, Regieleki, Reshiram, Shaymin-Sky, Sneasler, Solgaleo, Spectrier, Terapagos, Ursaluna-Bloodmoon, Urshifu-S, Zacian, Zacian-Crowned, Zamazenta-Crowned, Zekrom
• Moody/Shadow Tag/Arena Trap users: Diglett, Dugtrio, Glalie, Gothita, Gothitelle, Gothorita, Scovillain, Smeargle, Snorunt

Watchlist

• Chien-Pao, Urshifu-R, Zamazenta

Strategy
The activation of all abilities is a great boon to nearly everything that has multiple abilities. Some exemplary changes include:
Buffed

• Gaining both Water Absorb and Unaware is appreciated. Poison Point isn't that useful, but it might come handy.
• Thick Fat, Sap Sipper, AND Huge Power? Enjoy wacky Terastelization surprises.
• Most weather setters are improved with access to overlooked abilities.
• Some select physical attackers get the motherlode with all of their abilities active at once. Salamence, Krookodile, and Gyarados have Moxie + Intimidate, Perrserker gets Steely Spirit with Tough Claws, and Kingambit gets Defiant and Supreme Overlord.
• It no longer has to choose one of three mildly adequate abilities.
• The opponents have to fear Corrosion as well!
• One of the most improved attackers—Reckless/Rock Head, Adaptability, and Mold Breaker.

Nerfed

• Stall... at least Prankster still elevates priority.
• Rivalry is pretty annoying.

Replays

Gen 8
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/trashchannel-gen8pokebilities-3488 Rather scintillating game especially considering it was done long after the metagame was off rotation. Demonstrates the current quirky G-Weezing interactions decently.
Gen 7
[1] - This one is good
[2] - Another good one
[3] - Shows a team which uses TR

Gen 9 Pokébilities is a permanent challengeable format on the main server.
You can search for Pokébilities replays on replay.pokemonshowdown.com by typing in "gen9pokebilities".

 

[Ivy]

Sample Teams


https://pokepast.es/0849f8051a0835a0


https://pokepast.es/7bd2e7d67b9e9c44


https://pokepast.es/7a667eae1452a0b9


https://pokepast.es/b55eceb578de4192


https://pokepast.es/798b8b990264f359


https://pokepast.es/fdecf5246869a4f7


https://pokepast.es/ed227c7e1b1d02cb


https://pokepast.es/ae354bf07922a797


https://pokepast.es/de08bf36ef0475eb


https://pokepast.es/f5f6e2d19fb533d8


https://pokepast.es/ce81a941390fe014


https://pokepast.es/9cdb74c246857cbe

 

[drampa's grandpa]

Gumshoos @ Choice Band
Ability: Stakeout / Adaptability / Strong Jaw
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Body Slam
- Crunch
- U-turn
- Ice Fang

Gumshoos, a trashy first route rodent, gets three awesome abilities. It hits super super hard, especially if you Tera it.

+2 252+ Atk Choice Band Gumshoos Body Slam vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Avalugg: 250-296 (63.4 - 75.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Adaptability Stakeout

Dark Tera Crunch with Stakeout Adaptability and Strong Jaw
+2 252+ Atk Choice Band Gumshoos Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Avalugg on a critical hit: 352-416 (89.3 - 105.5%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
(crit to show strong jaw)

This guy is frail, but STRONG.


Cetitan @ Life Orb
Ability: Thick Fat / Sheer Force / Slush Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Belly Drum
- Icicle Crash
- Earthquake
- Liquidation

Slush Rush + Sheer Force is scary. The biggest issue this thing has is Azumarill, which murders it.

 

[Hyper-Go-ons]

Basculin (Basculin-Blue-Striped) @ Choice Band
Ability: Rock Head / Adaptability / Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Wave Crash
- Head Smash
- Aqua Jet
- Double-Edge

Its Rock Head + Adaptability combo let's fire a powerful Wave Crash without suffering any recoil, also Mold Breaker allows Basculin to ignore Water Immunity abilities such as Water Absorb and Dry Skin and other abilties such as Multiscale, Sturdy, Armor Tail and much more

In other hand, Red-Striped Form gets a stronger Wave Crash thanks to Reckless but it gets recoil.

If you give Rock Tera type to Basculin, it will make STAB Head Smash hit hard or Normal Tera Type for Double-Edge STAB instead.

 

[Uninteleon]

The biggest winners:

(Note: I haven't played the metagame yet, just theorymoning around.)

God (Annihilape) @ Leftovers / Punching Glove
Ability: Vital Spirit / Inner Focus / Defiant
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Taunt
- Bulk Up
- Rage Fist
- Drain Punch

Immune to sleep, Taunt + Defiant helps with beating any sketchy sticky web teams. Otherwise does what any old Annihilape does.

God's demise (Dondozo) @ Chesto Berry / Leftovers
Ability: Unaware / Oblivious / Water Veil
Tera Type: Grass
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Curse
- Wave Crash
- Zen Headbutt
- Rest/Protect

The direct swap-in to Annihilape, has Unaware to ignore any Bulk Up/Defiant boosts, and has Oblivious to ignore Taunt. Just slapped Zen Headbutt on there to hit Annihilape for SE/Neutral if it Teras.

Glimmora @ Focus Sash
Ability: Toxic Debris / Corrosion
EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Toxic
- Earth Power
- Spikes
- Stealth Rock

Very scary hazards setter that threatens mons like Corviknight with Corrosion Toxic, and Gholdengo with Earth Power.

Other winners:

Lokix @ Choice Band / Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Swarm / Tinted Lens
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- First Impression
- U-turn
- Sucker Punch
- Throat Chop/Axe Kick/Swords Dance

FImp appreciates Swarm + TLens.

Garganacl @ Leftovers / Heavy-Duty Boots
Ability: Purifying Salt / Sturdy / Clear Body
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Body Press
- Salt Cure
- Iron Defense
- Recover

Likes Sturdy, Clear Body is nice, and is still carried by Purifying Salt.

Honchkrow @ Heavy-Duty Boots / Choice Band
Ability: Insomnia / Super Luck / Moxie
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Night Slash
- U-turn
- Sucker Punch

Ability combo is very nice, however doesn't really have the speed to do what every other dark type is doing.

 

[readytolose]

Pokebilities is a lot of fun but it's probably one of the OMs that's the most similar to standard play overall. Because of that I decided to go through the current OU VR and evaluate which mons on here improve the most from the changes in this meta. This should be a pretty good start to getting an idea of what mons are worth using, although there are definitely a few mons not on the OU VR that seems really good in this meta too.

Hide

S Rank:

S Rank

Gholdengo

S- Rank

Chi-Yu
Dragapult Clear Body and Infiltrator each have their uses on different sets, so having both at once can be good sometimes. Cursed Body is there too, and is always annoying.
Great Tusk

A Rank:

A+ Rank

Annihilape Actually arguably worse, since Inner Focus prevents Defiant from activating off of Intimidate and Vital Spirit is pretty situational. It should still be an incredible mon though.
Chien-Pao
Cyclizar Shed skin + Regenerator is a pretty good combo, and lets you bring Cyclizar even more freely into status spreaders like Rotom-W.
Dragonite Intimidate immunity is nice but pretty situational, since the best Intimidate mons aren't checks to Dragonite really either way.
Espathra Opportunist is a pretty powerful ability, but you need to play pretty aggressively with your Espathra to get the most use out of it. At the least it makes it win CM wars even easier. A good potential use of it is to bring it in on opposing Espathra to dissuade setup.
Iron Valiant
Kingambit Defiant is excellent on top of Supreme Overlord to rule out Tauros-Paldea as an effective check. Kingambit is even better on Sticky Web since it can still benefit if it gets bounced back by Hatterene or Defogged and it appreciates the opposing team being slowed down.
Roaring Moon
Ting-Lu

A Rank

Corviknight Mirror Armor will usually just bounce back Shadow Ball drops, but it's helpful anyways. Unnerve also exists to prevent Rabsca from eating its Leppa Berry.
Dondozo Actually gets some pretty nice buffs. Water Veil lets it come in on Tauros-Paldea and Skeledirge easier, and Oblivious prevents it from being Taunted by Annihilape which really helps that matchup actually. Grimmsnarl is another relevant Taunter that you can turn into setup fodder.
Garganacl Clear Body will help you shut down Shadow Ball even more, or random Intimidates. Sturdy will rarely come in handy on such a bulky mon but is something to consider.
Glimmora Corrosion is pretty niche since you can't Toxic Gholdengo anyways. Glimmora doesn't like running Sludge Bomb much, but it does help that move sometimes.
Grimmsnarl With Frisk and Prankster Parting Shot, Grimmsnarl is an awesome scout.
Iron Treads

A- Rank

Amoonguss Effect Spore is very useful and will help it punish contact attackers like Basculin, Roaring Moon, and others.
Clodsire Three useful abilities. At the same time it's kinda easier to play against because you don't need to guess whether or not it has Water Absorb.
Garchomp Sand Veil is annoying but will hardly come into play unless you build around it.
Hatterene I think the best use of Anticipation could be scouting Iron Valiant for Shadow Ball?
Iron Moth
Rotom-Wash
Skeledirge Blaze is nice since Skeledirge has the bulk to take a hit and activate it, but pretty niche.
Volcarona Swarm and Flame Body are both niche abilities, but Volcarona has made use of both in the past, so it's considerable.

B Rank:

B+ Rank

Baxcalibur Ice Body is only really relevant on teams with Slowking and generally won't make a difference.
Breloom I think Toxic Orb is still a noob trap, even with Technician as well. Unless the meta somehow ends up in a very bulky state, something like Sash or CB seems much better.
Iron Hands
Quaquaval Torrent definitely comes in handy sometimes, especially on a set with Sub or Roost.
Scizor Swarm is situationally useful to power up U-turn.
Slowking Preventing Taunt from Grimmsnarl could help once in a while.
Torkoal Not being crit will pay off over many games.

B Rank

Azumarill Well, now it outright counters Breloom and Meowscarada and is a lot easier to bring in on Chi-Yu and Chien-Pao which is perhaps the most relevant part. At the same time it faces new threats like the buffed Clodsire, but Azumarill is still maybe one of the most improved mons on this list.
Blissey Serene Grace is too niche to build around, only relevant if you run Shadow Ball.
Ditto It has Limber now.
Meowscarada Overgrow can be relevant, but I've also seen sets that don't even run Flower Trick
Pawmot Another mon with three situational abilities. I think Natural Cure and Volt Absorb improve the Rotom-W matchup most of all, but Natural Cure is just useful to have if Toxic Spikes are up.
Toxapex Merciless comes in handy more than you think, since Toxapex is a lot more reliant on Toxic / poison now, but it still doesn't improve your offense much. Limber is also there and situational.
Tyranitar Unnerve lets you counter Leppa Berry Rabsca. Hooray!

B- Rank

Gyarados Intimidate and Moxie are both nice to set up and sweep respectively.
Hawlucha Some nice buffs here. Mold Breaker lets you bust through Dondozo, Skeledirge, and full HP Dragonite. Limber saves you from the rare Thunder Wave Grimmsnarl.
Hippowdon Hippowdon still faces a lot of competition as a bulky Ground, but Sand Force gives it a lot more offensive presence, although it's still pretty passive in the face of Corviknight.
Iron Jugulis
Orthworm Sand Veil is niche unless you build around it.
Pelipper Rain Dish is very nice with Drizzle, but Pelipper is often pivoting out anyways, so it's not as relevant as you'd think.
Slither Wing
Tauros-Paldea-Fire Running a Berry seems pretty suboptimal, even with Cud Chew. Overall I think this mon suffers a bit, as there's a lot more mons with ways to punish or nullify Intimidate in this.

C Rank:

C+ Rank

Barraskewda Propeller Tail is useless in Singles.
Iron Thorns
Masquerain Another counter to Leppa Berry, YES!
Pincurchin Lightning Rod is not a bad ability, but you don't really use Pincurchin for its ability to switch in on things anyways.
Scovillain Banned as it has Moody.

C Rank

Alomomola Hydration is useful for a defensive mon, but I would not run Alomomola on a rain team. Maybe with Rain Dance to self-heal? Still probably bad.
Arcanine Flash Fire is usable to come in on Chi-Yu.
Avalugg Ice Body isn't relevant in general.
Ceruledge Again, Flash Fire lets you dissuade choiced Chi-Yu.
Chansey Doesn't use Serene Grace well.
Charizard Blaze can power you up even more with Solar Power chip, but it's still barely relevant over Chi-Yu.
Cloyster Some niche benefits like hard-switching into Spore, avoiding crits while setting up, not being chipped by sand.
Floatzel Water Veil lets you bring it in on Fire-type burn spreaders, but those won't pose much of a threat to your rain team anyways.
Gallade Justified is useful sometimes, but not much.
Gastrodon Sticky Hold is relevant against Trick users like Gholdengo, as well as weaker Knock Off users, and retaining a Water immunity while doing so is great. Sand Force is probably not worth building around.
Hydreigon
Lokix Take hazard damage to get into Swarm range and revenge kill even better.
Magnezone While trapping feels less relevant this generation, Magnezone is still a beast with its Analytic + Sturdy combo making it relevant in many situations. Sturdy lets it keep pace against offensive teams, and Analytic often lets it secure a revenge kill. Because of this, Magnezone can almost always trade 1 for 1 at least.
Mimikyu
Polteageist Cursed Body lets you cheese some situations.
Scream Tail
Slowbro Slowbro doesn't benefit from Oblivious as much as Slowking since it doesn't have a pivot move to taunt.
Sylveon Cute Charm is the situational sort of thing to punish a Cyclizar going for Knock Off or something.
Talonflame Having Gale Wings on the support set lets you get a fast Defog or potentially revenge kill once with Brave Bird. It's a pretty nice buff for this mon overall.

D Rank:

D Rank

Brute Bonnet
Cetitan Some pretty substantial buffs here, actually. Thick Fat enables you to set up easier, and Sheer Force is a great buff to the power of Icicle Crash. Most notably, it will always OHKO phys def Corviknight at +6, which is probably the most common bulky mon you can encounter that isn't weak to Ice or EQ. The existence of bulky Unaware mons still puts Cetitan out of the limelight, but on paper this is a pretty big improvement.
Gengar
Haxorus Unnerve is almost useless, and Rivalry could hurt you as often as it helps. Overall it's arguably a net negative.
Indeedee Synchronize helps sometimes.
Kilowattrel Wind Power is still probably not worth building around, and Competitive is still pretty niche, so overall Volt Absorb will be the most relevant thing here, still.
Klefki Magician is not really worth building around. It could help if you eat a Knock Off.
Maushold Cheek Pouch is cute but it needs a Wide Lens to function.
Quagsire Pretty good actually. A phys def water immune is useful for Dondozo, Quaquaval, etc. Unfortunately it does not stop Basculin, but it's still pretty good.
Rabsca Telepathy is useless in singles.
Rotom-Heat
Salamence Intimidate and Moxie are nice for a sweeper, but Salamence still faces some strong competition from other sweepers with more optimized stats or better typings.
Sandy Shocks
Umbreon Inner Focus is basically useless, but it's nice to occasionally dodge a flinch.

 

[Hyper-Go-ons]

Klawf @ Assault Vest / Lum Berry
Ability: Anger Shell / Shell Armor / Regenerator
Tera Type: Water
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Crabhammer
- Stone Edge / Rock Blast
- High Horsepower
- Knock Off / Swords Dance

Klawf gets both Anger Shell and Regenerator at the same time, Shell Armor somethat helps avoid critical hits. It has quite handy moves such as Stealth Rock, Knock Off and Endeavor. You can even activate Anger Shell via Substitute too.

Klawf can run a Physically defensive Swords Dance set to face off against Tera Normal Dragonite and many physical attackers.

 

[Sandy Master]

Tropius @ Life Orb
Ability: Solar Power
Tera Type: Fire
EVs: 252 SpA / 40 SpD / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Growth
- Giga Drain \ Solar Beam
- Tera Blast





This is a monster in sun, Solar Power and Chlorophyll combined. Life Orb for damage, Timid nature and 216 speed EVs, this is enough to out speed everything in sun, except some scarfed Pokemon and Electrode, 40 Special Defense EVs because, what do I do with them? You can go wild with the extra 40 EVs. Growth because sun. Giga Drain to prevent too much damage from Life orb and Solar power, or Solar Beam for damage. There's Air Slash for STAB and Fire Tera Type for Tera Blast because its has a trash Movepool and can't beat Gholdengo and it a gets sun boost too. Ideally, you should pare this with hazard setters because it can 2 shot most specially defensive pokemon with Assault Vest.

+2 252 SpA Life Orb Solar Power Tropius Solar Beam vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Florges in Sun: 183-216 (50.8 - 60%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Solar Power Tropius Air Slash vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Goodra in Sun: 129-152 (33.5 - 39.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and 3 layers of Spikes

+2 252+ SpA Life Orb Tropius Air Slash vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Wo-Chien: 187-221 (50 - 59%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and 3 layers of Spikes

 

[missangelic]

This post started as an initial glance at some changes and new Pokemon in the Pokebilities metagame before exploding into this beast. I hope you like reading long posts (and that typhlosion787 christens the thread with a great post so I don't have to look weird with a double-post).

I'm kind of a fan of the way Pokebilities shifts the metagame rather than completely overhauls it, and the meta looked unique if a bit top-heavy in SS. I'm interested to see where the meta goes without staples like Clefable, Reuniclus, and many Regenerator Pokemon. Here are some of my first impressions!


Pokebilites lost a good amount of its staples, but it retained a good number of some of the strongest Pokemon in the format too. Movepool changes, Tera, and the pool of available Pokemon could have a significant effect on some of these previous-gen titans.

Returning High-Ranked Pokebilities Friends

Corviknight's return is great. Its roles as a Defogger and defensive Steel-type pivot are very valuable, but the pool of available Pokemon is pretty hostile. Corviknight can tap into Terastallization to escape Magnezone's Magnet Pull, but this comes at the cost of being less able to use Terastallization freely with teammates.


Dragapult is still just as fast as last gen and more offensively threatening with Terastallization available. There are a lot Dark-type Pokemon available as Ghost-resists or offensive checks with Kingambit, the new legendary quartet, Grimmsnarl, Meowscarada, Roaring Moon, Tyranitar, and more.
On the other hand, Dragapult's natural speed is completely unopposed without Zeraora, and a number of Fairy-types and Regenerator Pokemon previously present are not in SV to check or pivot into Dragapult. Choice Scarf, speed-boosting effects from weather/terrain, and priority will go a lot farther when it comes to keeping Dragapult in check. Dragonite and Tera being unrestricted looks massively threatening, so having an organic Normal-immunity on a fast Pokemon seems very valuable at the moment. Dragapult has a useful resistance to priority from Azumarill's Aqua Jet and an immunity to Breloom's Mach Punch. However, Dragapult is unfortunately vulnerable to Ice Shards from Baxcalibur, Cetitan, Cloyster, and importantly, Chien-Pao. Sucker Punch from Chien-Pao, Meowscarada, and Kingambit further add to the idea that Dragapult cannot be your only form of fast anti-priority.
As mentioned in the OP, Dragapult enjoys


Magnezone's biggest target, Corviknight, can now escape Magnezone's Magnet Pull. However, Magnezone is already a pretty big threat without Magnet Pull, as Analytic makes it a strong attacker. Forcing an opponent to use their Tera or lose their Steel type is still a negative trade on the part of the opponent, which means Magnezone could still retain quite a bit of value as a trapper. Magnezone could use Tera itself to try and trap foes like Kingambit (Fighting), Gholdengo (Water/Electric), and Iron Treads (Flying/Grass/Water) and there's a lot of possibility. Magnezone has always struggled with its coverage and weaknesses to common offensive types; Tera completely shakes up what Magnezone can do to break through checks and swing games in short sequences.

Another returning icon. Salamence benefits immensely from the departure of Clefable, and Clodsire is weak to Earthquake. However, Dondozo is a very strong counter on paper, and Curse could turn Salamence into setup fodder. Kingambit can also take advantage of Salamence's Intimidate because of having Supreme Overlord instead of Inner Focus, which is another point against Salamence. Salamence could still prove to be very useful versus some current-OU staples like Breloom.

Azumarill lost Knock Off and Flip Turn, which is a bit unfortunate for such a strong attacker and great pivot. However, it has gained a good amount of new targets in Ting-Lu, Chien-Pao, Chi-Yu, Baxcalibur, Clodsire, Garganacle, Glimmora, Great Tusk, Iron Treads, Iron Moth, Roaring Moon, Quaquaval, Skeledirge, Kingambit, Iron Valiant, Iron Hands, Ceruledge, Meowscarada, Slither Wing, the Paldean Tauros forms, and more. An immunity to Grass as a Water-type gives Azumarill a great amount of defensive utility and naturally good matchups on paper versus a lot of Pokemon, and Thick Fat compounds Azumarill's resistances. Aqua Jet has a lot of value in hyper offensive metagames. I see Choice Band and AV as the best sets for Azumarill if Dondozo is really prominent in the metagame, as Belly Drum sets look like they'd have a hard time reliably getting through Dondozo without dedicating to Aqua Jet + Grass Tera Blast + Ice Punch. Azumarill's Dragon-type immunity looks very useful in a metagame with lots of strong Dragon-types, but lacking a super-effective priority move versus them is a bit unfortunate compared to other physical attackers like Chien-Pao. Pokemon absent in Gen 8 which return to see niches in Gen 9 like Breloom and Floatzel are conveniently checked by Azumarill. Azumarill just looks like it has a very strong position in this pool of Pokemon.

I think Gyarados is a bit worse than in SS because of the loss of Power Whip. Bulky Water-types or Water-immune Pokemon like Dondozo, Quagsire, Gastrodon, and Rotom-Wash either force you into Tera Grass + Tera Blast or conceding that your sweeper will not sweep without dedicated support. Moxie + Intimidate is still a great combination, but Gyarados has a lot of competition from Pokemon which can either better use Tera like Dragonite or Pokemon less dependent on Tera like Dragapult.

Hawlucha lost its best partner, Rillaboom, and backups like the Tapus are not available. Indeedee-F looks to be Hawlucha's most consistent partner now, and offering Healing Wish and priority protection aren't bad traits. However, Hawlucha would probably prefer the Defense boost, as it is vulnerable to a lot of the priority being thrown around the metagame. Mold Breaker is actually great, as Hawlucha ignores Unaware, and competitors like Tinkaton and Haxorus don't measure up. Veluza might eke out a niche with Fillet Away, but Hawlucha seems much more consistent at sweeping with the right support than the fish.

Hippowdon lost Toxic in the generational shift and Gen 9 halved the PP of Slack Off. Gen 9 more like Ice-9. Boom. Reference. Seriously though, Hippowdon's defensive values being curtailed is unfortunate, but the Hippo has room to run Rock coverage now, making it much less passive and much more able to lean into the damage boost from Sand Force. I'd like to touch on Sand a little more later in the post, so I'll leave it here that I see Hippowdon as "pretty good" and likely to improve once the metagame is more settled.

Krookodile lost Knock Off, which is seriously significant for a Dark-type attacker. A plethora of competing Dark-types like Chien-Pao, Roaring Moon, Kingambit, Ting-Lu, and Chi-Yu are seriously challenging to Krookodile's place in the metagame. The pool of available Pokemon is flush with a lot of strong and scary priority users like the aforementioned Chien-Pao, Breloom, and Azumarill, which is not fun for Krookodile. Krookodile probably still has a niche with how great of a combo Moxie + Intimidate is, especially on a Pokemon not weak to rocks, but Krookodile won't be able to make the same progress it could last generation without an update to its movepool.

Another significant "loser" of the movepool changes in Gen 9. Slowbro now lacks Teleport, Scald, and Toxic while also having halved PP on its recovery move. Slowking gives Slowbro a run for its money as a slow pivot, as Slowking has access to the move Chilly Reception. Dondozo, Azumarill, Rotom-Wash, and Toxapex all bring varying types of defensive utility that Slowbro lacks. The pool of available Pokemon is very heavy in Dark-types, and great Ghost-types like Gholdengo, Dragapult, and Annihilape don't make Slowbro's job any easier. Slowbro looks to be one of the bigger losers of the generational shift.

Blissey does not enjoy the shift to Gen 9, where its recovery move has had its PP halved, and it lost Toxic, Wish, Heal Bell, and Teleport. It's still unopposed, perhaps even more unopposed now that Clef is gone, as a pink blob with great special bulk. However, this role has been diminished by the mechanical shape of Gen 9. A Ghost-immunity and Tera opening the door to incredible defensive type changes mean Blissey will likely stay relevant.

If you've been at all in touch with OU over the past month and a half, you'll know Dragonite is one of the most effective users of Tera. Pokebilities grants Dragonite Inner Focus on top of Multiscale to block Intimidate. Salamence is an obviously competitive Dragon-type with its combo of Intimidate + Moxie, but Tera pushes Dragonite over the edge. It's unfortunate that Dragonite is unable to overwhelm Dondozo, but offensive revenge killers like Chien-Pao are very vulnerable to Tera + Extreme Speed. Unaware being more common might limit Dragonite, but a strong matchup versus Clodsire helps Dragonite's case. Dragonite benefits a lot from the transition to Gen 9, perhaps more than any other returning Pokemon.

Toxapex losing Scald, Toxic, and Knock Off in the generational transition while its recovery move had its PP halved is pretty unfortunate, but The Pex still has great bulk, excellent status spreading ability, and pivoting power. Absorbing Toxic Spikes from Glimmora is pretty beneficial in a metagame where removal is challenged by Gholdengo. Merciless as an ability is a bit of an unexpected double-edged sword, as you can activate Anger Point on Krookodile, Tauros' Paldean forms, and Primeape, although these Pokemon are likely to be limited/overshadowed. Chilling Water can have self-defeating effects versus Defiant Pokemon like Annihilape or Kingambit and Competitive Pokemon like Kilowattrel. However, these situations aren't so common or hard to prevent that Toxapex is inhibited.

Like with Hippowdon I have a larger passage on Sand below but Tyranitar enjoys less competition as a Sand Pokemon from Gigalith. Fewer Magic Guard Pokemon to partner with is sad, but fewer to play against gives Tyranitar an advantage in the war of passive damage. Tera and the volatility of an unexplored metagame might keep Tyranitar down a bit.

Weavile lost Triple Axel and Knock Off in the same generation Chien-Pao was introduced. I don't see any role for Weavile in this current metagame.

I'd also like to rapid-fire cover a few returning Pokemon which deserve attention. I went by the OU viability rankings like readytolose but there's definitely a few other Pokemon worthy of consideration.

Spoiler

Amoonguss doesn't have to contend with Clefable, Reuniclus, or as many competing and good Regenerator Pokemon. Amoonguss is really solid in standard OU, and Pokebilities incentivizes its use further by adding Effect Spore as a method to further punish physical attackers. Amoonguss in practice might have to fear Ice coverage from Azumarill and struggles with Poison Heal on Breloom, but it's still in a great position to prey on Water, Fighting, Fairy, and Grass types.

Washtom doesn't benefit from Pokebilities' main effect, and the effect it has on other Pokemon goes both ways for Washtom. Clodsire, Quagsire, and Gastrodon having free water immunities is obviously negative, and Washtom doesn't even have Defog anymore to clear their hazards, let alone Toxic to wear them down. Sticky Hold being free on Gastrodon is just as troubling, and prevents choiced sets from making progress. However, Washtom still boasts a great offensive typing, pivoting ability, and it can beat Unaware Dondozo as a setup sweeper. Great matchups into the paradox Donphan forms is an appreciated quality that will get better as the meta ages.

Hatterene has a very privileged position in the shape of the OU hazard metagame. In Pokebilities, this seems to be the same. Tera and a ton of utility options still make Hatterene a great support Pokemon, and there's a dearth of available Fairy-types to draw from.

Volcarona is an excellent abuser of Tera but does not enjoy the increase in Unaware Pokemon and Water-types. Azumarill with its Thick Fat + Sap Sipper + Aqua Jet puts a ceiling on how viable Volcarona can be, even with Tera as a tool in its kit. Flame Body and Swarm simultaneously is an appreciated buff.

Scizor lost Roost and Knock Off but holds a strong position in standard OU for its pivoting ability and priority. Swarm is a nice little buff to the traditional Technician Scizor. Resistances to priority like Extreme Speed and Ice Shard while offering Bullet Punch and the potential to Tera Steel makes Scizor a significant offensive threat.

Chilly Reception helps Slowking to retain the slow pivoting ability it rose to the forefront for in Gen 8, although the recovery move nerfs and movepool changes to remove Toxic, Scald, and Teleport were very unfortunate. A lot of the early metagame is filled with physical attackers, Dark and Ghost types, and very offensive Pokemon, which is very limiting to Slowking.

Torkoal and Sun get to go crazy with the available Protosynthesis paradox Pokemon. However, Scovillain is banned due to Moody, and so Sun is left without a very obvious candidate for a Chlorophyll sweeper. It could be argued that Protosynthesis' boosts are enough, but Sun sorely misses Venusaur.

Ditto is fine for playing around Regenerator cores and turning the tables on setup sweepers, but Unaware Pokemon like Clodsire are already able to shut down setup sweepers pretty effectively. Then again, there's plenty of scary setup sweepers early in this metagame to make Ditto an attractive option.

Rain lost a number of tools like Zapdos, Tornadus-T, Flip Turn on Barraskewda, and Ferrothorn, making it a harder sell. Floatzel, Barraskewda, Scizor, Azumarill, and Kilowattrel are great options, but an increase in Water and Electric immunities across the board might be limiting.

A returning cut Pokemon, Masquerain is one of few to have Sticky Web. Masquerain doesn't exactly benefit from the Pokebilities buff. Heavy-Duty Boots innately makes webs less consistent. However, webs are difficult to remove when paired with Gholdengo. Watch out for Kingambit.

An Electric-immunity on an Electric Terrain setter is handy, although Pincurchin's poor stats and lack of pivoting ability really restrict it as team support on teams featuring Quark Drive Pokemon. Pinc is also pretty offensively threatening versus Defoggers like Corviknight.

A built-in Attack boost after taking Dark-type moves while packing Intimidate and a Fire-immunity buffs up Arcanine just a bit more. Extreme Speed, Morning Sun, and other coverage and utility moves round out Arcanine's game, but it's still a bit limited. Intimidate will trigger Kingambit's Defiant, which is unfortunate on a Pokemon that otherwise has a solid matchup.

Ice Body yummy passive snow healing. Avalugg yucky special defense.

Blaze + Solar Power to back up Sun teams looks deadly.

Yay now your sweeper can't get crit or spored. Also Cloyster has Drill Run this generation. And you can always Tera your way out of a bad sweep.

No buff from Pokebilities and it lost Defog + Roost which is sad. However, Tera can make Hydreigon go crazy if you're willing to spring it on a Dragon-type that's not Dragapult, Dragonite, Salamence, or Garchomp.

Identical to how it is in standard OU except now Wood Hammer is even better for Waters and there's more Unaware Pokemon. I don't really see Mimikyu taking off.

Another setup sweeper that can tera its way out of a bad situation? You shouldn't have. Obligated Weak Armor means Polteageist really needs to commit to sweeps, but tera can make them easier to pull off, and Stored Power will be even stronger.

One of the few remaining Fairy-types after Dexit 2. Sylveon unfortunately lost Mystical Fire in the generational transition, but it could be a budget replacement for Clefairy given its typing, strong Fairy STAB, and Cute Charm. Kommo-o also isn't around to force it into running Moonblast or a Psychic move.

Flame Body + Heavy-Duty Boots have domesticated Talonflame in standard play. However, Gale Wings is naturally available in Pokebilities. Talonflame has access to all of Defog, Roost, U-Turn, and Will-O-Wisp, making it a very competent support Pokemon with a naturally good matchup versus physical attackers like Breloom. I could see it carving a niche in Pokebilities.

SV limited the Pokedex once again to 400, shuffling out hundreds of Pokemon while making room for some Pokemon not present in SS. Some "old" Pokemon like Breloom are very clearly effective, even without the Pokebilities buff, but there's a good number of returning Pokemon worth an eyecatch.

Returning Previously Cut Pokemon

Breloom was absent from SS Pokebilities. Breloom gained Close Combat and Bulldoze in the transition to Gen 9, both of which Breloom can use to great effect. In Pokebilities Breloom can employ two great abilities in Technician and Poison Heal. Natural longevity goes a long way, and Breloom also has an advantaged matchup as a physical attacker versus Dondozo. I see Breloom being really great early on. Fighting-type priority in Technician Mach Punch is fantastic in a metagame flush with Dark-types, and it can take out Tera Steel Pokemon too. Effect Spore may not seem too useful, but Breloom's longevity with Poison Heal and the stickiness of status in a metagame without clerics might be better than it seems. Breloom has already proven itself in OU, and it would not be surprising if it was even more valuable in a metagame where it can use both of its best abilities.

This one is sort of cheating, but Cinderace is a "returning" Pokemon that was not legal in Gen 8! Libero now only changes Cinderace's type on the first turn it uses a move, which is limiting on paper, but Cinderace can still pick and choose its type as will. As an offensive pivot with U-Turn, Cinderace doesn't struggle being limited to one use of Libero each time it comes in, as often it will become a Bug-type and U-Turn out. Blaze remaining in Cinderace's set gives some extra firepower (haha) to Bulk Up sets given they now commit to the Fighting-type. Cinderace might be a bit overwhelming considering nerfs to multiple defensive Pokemon like Toxapex, Slowbro, and defensive variants of Dragonite or Salamence, but Azumarill and Dondozo are made even better as a result of Pokebilities, and this may place a ceiling on Cinderace's potential to run through games. However, hazard removal is in a very challenged place with the presences of Glimmora and Gholdengo and the reduction in Pokemon with reliable hazard removal; this may make Heavy-Duty Boots pivot Cinderace overwhelming to slower teams, and Court Change is extremely powerful when considering G&G (Glimm and Ghold).

Floatzel's big moment is now. Barraskewda losing Flip Turn as Ferrothorn is cut opens up a niche for a fast physical Rain sweeper with strong Ice-type coverage. A lot of Rain's previous tools like Ferrothorn and Zapdos are now missing, which is unfortunate. Gyarados lost Power Whip, which is an obvious loss coming into a Generation where Quagsire + Gastrodon gained hazards and Clodsire + Dondozo exist. Pelipper is a key retain, and new options like Kilowattrel make up for the loss of Zapdos a bit. Hail has been replaced by Snow, and Floatzel could try Low Kick out for the Cetitan and Snow matchup. Sun has mutated into something less recognizable with the presence of Protosynthesis Pokemon, but Floatzel and Rain do have an advantaged matchup in this case. Water Veil is an okay addition, although the removal of Scald from many movesets and few obvious Will-O-Wisp users that Floatzel can take advantage of safely given its poor bulk makes this a more theoretical buff.

Bruxish, even with three great abilities and a crucial anti-priority ability, looks pretty limited and potentially outclassed in Gen 9. Bruxish lacks much defensive utility beyond being invulnerable to priority moves and having a 50% chance to dodge status moves, and the pool of Pokemon looks pretty tilted in favor of offense. Indeedee-F would probably provide more given that Psychic Terrain can enable teammates like Hawlucha, Armarouge, Espathra, and more. Another newcomer, Veluza, has Mold Breaker on top of Sharpness for breaking through Dondozo. Dondozo means setup Bruxish has a hard stop without using Tera on Bruxish and having the opponent unable/unwilling to Tera their own Dondozo. Maybe it will find a niche, but it will see a lot of competition outside of the limitations of low bulk and middling speed. A Scarf set would likely maximize the positive traits of this Pokemon, where Water is a valuable offensive typing to take care of threats like Chi-Yu and the paradox Donphans, and Crunch can OHKO Dragapult after rocks. However, most teams might be better off running a different Water-type with more defensive utility like Azumarill, Dondozo, Gastrodon, Quagsire, Gyarados, Quaquaval, Rotom-Wash, the slowtwins, Toxapex, or Paldean Tauros' Water form; there's a big sea of Water-types to choose from.

Alomomola doesn't benefit immensely from the main effect of Pokebilities, as Alomomola Rain stall doesn't look very sound without Ferrothorn. Alomomola lost all of Scald, Toxic, and Knock Off in Gen 9, limiting its capability to wear out targets on its own. Whirlpool trapping sets are possible, and Alomomola is an interesting candidate for defensive Terastallization.

There's been a significant cut of many great Fairy-types from Gen 8, but I don't know that there's been so many that Florges will be a wholesale replacement for Clefable. Azumarill, Grimmsnarl, and Hatterene individually bring a diverse level of defensive utility to teams. Tinkaton has a built-in Intimidate immunity in Pokebilities (if only it had an Earthquake immunity to follow-up on Salamence and Krookodile but you can't have everything), and Scream Tail is a similarly passive Fairy-type Wish passer. Tera Grass sure does make Florges status-immune, but it sacrifices the amazing defensive Fairy-typing and your opportunity to Tera a different Pokemon.

Body Press and the slight buff of Pokebilities don't seem enough to make Forretress a significant player in a metagame which has some really powerful threats ranging from the legendary treasures to Gholdengo to Corviknight. A lot of Pokemon gained access to Spikes, and Glimmora is a very competitive hazard stacker which is buffed further in Pokebilities. This one seems like a pass.

Hariyama gains access to all of Guts, Sheer Force, and Thick Fat, completely revamping its defensive-offensive value. Hariyama retains access to the much more restricted Knock Off. Thick Fat and Guts could give Hariyama some great value with checking Chien-Pao and Chi-Yu, although the two are quite strong and can bring Psychic coverage. Hariyama's longevity is pretty questionable, but there's a good amount of Pokemon Hariyama could check, such as Tyranitar, Cetitan, Cinderace, Iron Moth, Skeledirge, and Volcarona depending on sets. A damage boost from burn is great for a Pokemon with a Fire-resistance. Poor speed is another big hindrance to Hariyama. Sheer Force also gives Hariyama the freedom to pull out random coverage moves and throw out a lot of damage onto checks, and it's got a lot of coverage moves to employ in Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Zen Headbutt, Fire Punch, and Rock Slide. I think I'm overhyping it a bit, but Hariyama has a lot of offensive and defensive qualities to bring to the table.

I'm not super involved with Pokebilities so this is a pretty out of pocket take, but I think there should be some serious consideration given to the legality of Sand Veil + Snow Cloak Pokemon in the metagame. Standard OU already bans these evasion abilities under the pretense that they're uncompetitive.

Big Evasion

Pokebilities adds another turn of the screw to Pokemon with weather-based evasion abilities, as weather-setting Pokemon like Hippowdon benefit a lot from the multiple abilities mechanic. Pokemon with weather-based evasion abilities are much freer to use, as there is not an opportunity cost to running the ability thanks to the Pokebilities effect. Garchomp is already a decent threat in standard OU, and it's not hard to imagine that Garchomp is going to be effective in Pokebilities either.
It could be argued that Pokebilities is more fit to deal with evasion-abilities than standard OU in a bit of a counter-intuitive way; if you're incentivized to run weather, your opponent is just as incentivized to run different weather strategies, which can be disruptive. More outside of the vacuum, Pelipper and generally rain teams have a more advantageous matchup versus Sand and Snow, the two teamstyles which have access to weather-based evasion abilities. Sun possesses a lot of Protosynthesis tools to take advantage of even without an obviously good Chlorophyll Pokemon. However, I don't think players should have to build more linear teams with weather just to avoid losing games because Ice Shard went a little bit to the left on a Sub + SD Garchomp.
(Side note: I like the creative thinking with Tropius in an above post, but I think most Chlorphyll users are either too weak, too frail, or too easily worn into range of a lot of priority moves, and Azumarill's Grass immunity and quadruple Fire-resistance is pretty disruptive.)
| |
Most Sand Veil Pokemon are generally not on par with Garchomp and its power, but there are a few notable picks. Orthworm has its own flavor of potentially uncompetitive mechanic with Shed Tail, and it can give a really annoying set of resistances to sand teams while enabling setup sweepers.
Palossand seems a bit unfair itself with Shore Up healing 2/3 HP in sand on top of the evasion boost, and Palossand does have some potentially relevant targets to wall in Pawmot, Magnezone, Iron Hands, Iron Thorns, Glimmora, Grafaiai, Iron Moth, Toxapex, Toxicroak, and Toxtricity. Palossand's type works nicely with Tyranitar to alleviate Palossand's Dark and Ghost weaknesses while Tyranitar appreciates Palossand's Fighting-immunity. Tera opens the door for Water Compaction to be an actually useful ability; Poison, Steel, Water, Grass, and even Fairy could be creatively used to great effect with Tera. Sand Veil still protects Palossand from Sandstorm chip.
Cacturne, Donphan, Sandaconda, and Wugtrio seem like very poor abusers of the evasion from sand. Donphan is a big opportunity cost compared to its paradox forms and stacks sand team weaknesses. Sandaconda offers a way to reset sand with Sand Spit, benefits from its own Sand, and can find longevity with Shed Skin, but it seems pretty inconsistent compared to Palossand while not offering any additional resistances or features to Sand teams. Cacturne might add Spikes support and some useful immunities to Spore, Water-moves, and Psychic-moves, but its frailty and poor speed are significant liabilities comapred to more durable Dark and Grass types. Wugtrio is plainly not fit for an OU-level environment given its poor bulk in a priority-heavy metagame and limited movepool. You'd get more out of just running Azumarill or Gastrodon.
| |
I won't give as much attention to Snow as I will to Sand. I think Alolan Ninetales with Snow Warning + Snow Cloak was another mascot of uncompetitiveness (even more than Cute Charm Clefable), and thankfully its removal from the dex makes the Snow playstyle dependent on Abomasnow. Abomasnow doesn't have fantastic defensive utility even with a boost to its defenses, and it lacks standout power or speed. Abomasnow critically does not have Snow Cloak. Beartic can work with Cetitan on Snow but generally Cetitan is the more powerful of the two. Beartic did receive Close Combat but Cetitan is a bigger beneficiary of Pokebilities, as it adds Thick Fat and Sheer Force onto Slush Rush. However, Beartic in Snow is still an uncompetitive strategy. Aurora Veil + Snow Cloak + Snow's natural defense boost + Substitute make knocking out Beartic much more difficult when factoring in random misses. However, Beartic is a secondary snow sweeper to Cetitan, stacks weaknesses with Cetitan and Abomasnow, and still doesn't break through Dondozo without Tera Grass + Tera Blast + chip.

Garchomp is what I believe to be the mascot of how uncompetitive weather-based evasion can be. Garchomp's natural speed and power can make it a dangerous offensive Pokemon to play around. There are certainly offensive answers to Garchomp, and Dragapult's Infiltrator will ignore Substitute shenanigans, but there's always a risk of offensive checks simply missing and being taken out by Garchomp. There's a number of pretty strong offensive Dragon-types available to challenge Garchomp's slot, such as Roaring Moon, Dragapult, and Dragonite, and all of them can really make Terastallization work for them. However, none of this makes the nature of Garchomp any less uncompetitive in the metagame.
I think that to keep the metagame competitive, Sand Veil and Snow Cloak should be added to the Pokebilities banlist. Although this might seem like splitting hairs in an unexplored metagame, I don't think developing the metagame with evasion abilities legal is a good direction or kosher with the way tiering policy goes.
If the metagame doesn't generally shape itself in a way where Garchomp, Sand, or Snow are manageable, this could continue to be an issue or become a bigger issue down the line. This generation seems forecasted to have a lot of tiering issues and additional content to wade through, where Terastallization is a hot topic, Home's full connectivity with SV is confirmed but does not have a release date, event raids look like there will be a trickle of unreleased Pokemon like Charizard and Cinderace. The potential for DLC like with SS would also shake up the metagame. This is a pretty significant reason why I think choosing to rip off the bandaid and ban evasion abilities now would be a good decision. There's not necessarily a guarantee of a "settled" metagame, and removing an uncompetitive element would really help quiet some of the noise.
One could argue that Garchomp / Sand Veil / evasion abilities are not going to be relevant in every game, that there are bigger issues and more obviously broken Pokemon, or that Garchomp and even evasion abilities have some positive qualities in Pokebilities. However, none of these arguments address or refute that evasion abilities themselves are uncompetitive and have already been restricted from the standard OU format. Even the argument that going after evasion abilities in an unproven metagame is bad tiering policy is flawed, as if something is uncompetitive, it should be restricted, regardless of how "old" a metagame is.
I think the most sound argument that evasion abilities are not the issue is that pre-evolved Pokemon like Cetoddle, Cubchoo, and Gabite would be really poor choices and are obviously inconsistent at making this playstyle work. However, I don't think there's an easy fix, and like with Arena Trap, leaving an NFE with a broken ability untouched doesn't solve the issue of the mechanic itself being uncompetitive. A straight up ban of all Snow Cloak + Sand Veil Pokemon is the cleanest solution.
There will definitely be fallout to banning Garchomp and a lot of other Pokemon. A lot of the Pokemon which have broken abilities being unavailable are not much of a loss to the tier, as Dugtrio, Glalie, and Gothitelle aren't exactly fan-favorite Pokemon or useful in a very high-power competitive metagame. Garchomp is unlike them in being fairly balanced without Sand Veil in play. However, this is still a poor argument to keep Sand Veil, and I think evasion abilities should go.

This post is already very long so I'll save my impressions of new Pokemon for another time.
To make this post not just a series of theorymons, I'll share a team I built: Link

I built this team as a hyper offensive team that denies priority from opposing offenses and hazard removal from more bulky teams. I feel proud that each Pokemon on the team generally has a well-thought out Tera type, as Terastallization isn't my favorite mechanic. Great Tusk might be replaceable, but Glimmora + Ghosts + Hawlucha + FinDD seems to me like a solid, if linear, offensive roster. Hawlucha really appreciates protection from Ice Shards from Baxcalibur and Chien-Pao, and it's a physical sweeper with Mold Breaker for Unaware walls.

 

[typhlosion787]

Azumarill lost Knock Off and Flip Turn

Not done reading the post, just thought I'd mention real quick that unfortunately, Azu never got Flip Turn. However, another huge loss is Curse. You couldn't use it in most normal metaganes because you'd be forced into Sap Sipper, but since Pokebilities allows you to have all abilities, Curse+Leftovers became a surprisingly strong threat with priority to balance out the speed lowering and bolster Azu's defensive capabilities

Toxapex losing Scald, Toxic, and Knock Off

Another small correction to make, Toxapex still learns Toxic by level up. However, it did still lose the other two and is challenged as a Toxic and T Spikes user by Clodsire. Without the overwhelming presence of Clefable, Pex's most valuable role of being a defensive mon that has potential to 2HKO Clef if you sacrifice an extra moveslot (a hefty price to pay, but another thing that made Pex insane and even more versatile). Clodsire can be debated to have a worse overall defensive profile, but with two immunities and a Toxic and Thunder Wave immunity, it makes much more Clod favored

Rain lost a number of tools like Zapdos, Tornadus-T, Flip Turn on Barraskewda, and Ferrothorn, making it a harder sell. Floatzel, Barraskewda, Scizor, Azumarill, and Kilowattrel are great options, but an increase in Water and Electric immunities across the board might be limiting.

This is absolutely true. Rain debatably lost more abusers than any weather. It lost a ton of dragon pokemon to abuse water coverage, only really retaining Dragapult, Salamence, and Hydreigon. However, it did get Zapdos lite in Kilowattrel and Iron Jugulis. Other than those small buffs, though, rain took a massive hit. Forretress may look like a cool Ferro replacement at first glance, getting Rapid Spin, Volt Switch, and T Spikes, but coming from someone who's tried it, it just isn't worth it. The only thing it gained was Basculin getting Wave Crash. It actually does more damage on Blue Stripe (Rock Head one) than a Barraskewda Liquidation if the same item, but Basculin doesn't have Swift Swim or even a base 100 speed stat

Breloom was absent from SS Pokebilities. Breloom gained Close Combat and Bulldoze in the transition to Gen 9, both of which Breloom can use to great effect.

Another major buff that Breloom received is Gunk Shot over Poison Jab to hit fairy types

Hariyama gains access to all of Guts, Sheer Force, and Thick Fat, completely revamping its defensive-offensive value. Hariyama retains access to the much more restricted Knock Off. Thick Fat and Guts could give Hariyama some great value with checking Chien-Pao and Chi-Yu, although the two are quite strong and can bring Psychic coverage. Hariyama's longevity is pretty questionable, but there's a good amount of Pokemon Hariyama could check, such as Tyranitar, Cetitan, Cinderace, Iron Moth, Skeledirge, and Volcarona depending on sets.

Major thing to mention related to Hariyama, it gained Drain Punch in the transition to gen 9, giving it an actual way to heal without relying on Rest, Leftovers, or Wish support. This was one of the main things that made it to where Conk was overwhelming last generation, repeatedly staving off hazard and burn damage. Of course, calling Hariyama overwhelming would be silly as it isn't even close, just calling an important parallel. It doesn't have Iron Fist and it's PhysDef and SpDef are both not great, but it's HP makes up for some of that

This post started as an initial glance at some changes and new Pokemon in the Pokebilities metagame before exploding into this beast. I hope you like reading long posts (and that typhlosion787 christens the thread with a great post so I don't have to look weird with a double-post).

I'm kind of a fan of the way Pokebilities shifts the metagame rather than completely overhauls it, and the meta looked unique if a bit top-heavy in SS. I'm interested to see where the meta goes without staples like Clefable, Reuniclus, and many Regenerator Pokemon. Here are some of my first impressions!


Pokebilites lost a good amount of its staples, but it retained a good number of some of the strongest Pokemon in the format too. Movepool changes, Tera, and the pool of available Pokemon could have a significant effect on some of these previous-gen titans.

Returning High-Ranked Pokebilities Friends

Corviknight's return is great. Its roles as a Defogger and defensive Steel-type pivot are very valuable, but the pool of available Pokemon is pretty hostile. Corviknight can tap into Terastallization to escape Magnezone's Magnet Pull, but this comes at the cost of being less able to use Terastallization freely with teammates.


Dragapult is still just as fast as last gen and more offensively threatening with Terastallization available. There are a lot Dark-type Pokemon available as Ghost-resists or offensive checks with Kingambit, the new legendary quartet, Grimmsnarl, Meowscarada, Roaring Moon, Tyranitar, and more.
On the other hand, Dragapult's natural speed is completely unopposed without Zeraora, and a number of Fairy-types and Regenerator Pokemon previously present are not in SV to check or pivot into Dragapult. Choice Scarf, speed-boosting effects from weather/terrain, and priority will go a lot farther when it comes to keeping Dragapult in check. Dragonite and Tera being unrestricted looks massively threatening, so having an organic Normal-immunity on a fast Pokemon seems very valuable at the moment. Dragapult has a useful resistance to priority from Azumarill's Aqua Jet and an immunity to Breloom's Mach Punch. However, Dragapult is unfortunately vulnerable to Ice Shards from Baxcalibur, Cetitan, Cloyster, and importantly, Chien-Pao. Sucker Punch from Chien-Pao, Meowscarada, and Kingambit further add to the idea that Dragapult cannot be your only form of fast anti-priority.
As mentioned in the OP, Dragapult enjoys


Magnezone's biggest target, Corviknight, can now escape Magnezone's Magnet Pull. However, Magnezone is already a pretty big threat without Magnet Pull, as Analytic makes it a strong attacker. Forcing an opponent to use their Tera or lose their Steel type is still a negative trade on the part of the opponent, which means Magnezone could still retain quite a bit of value as a trapper. Magnezone could use Tera itself to try and trap foes like Kingambit (Fighting), Gholdengo (Water/Electric), and Iron Treads (Flying/Grass/Water) and there's a lot of possibility. Magnezone has always struggled with its coverage and weaknesses to common offensive types; Tera completely shakes up what Magnezone can do to break through checks and swing games in short sequences.

Another returning icon. Salamence benefits immensely from the departure of Clefable, and Clodsire is weak to Earthquake. However, Dondozo is a very strong counter on paper, and Curse could turn Salamence into setup fodder. Kingambit can also take advantage of Salamence's Intimidate because of having Supreme Overlord instead of Inner Focus, which is another point against Salamence. Salamence could still prove to be very useful versus some current-OU staples like Breloom.

Azumarill lost Knock Off and Flip Turn, which is a bit unfortunate for such a strong attacker and great pivot. However, it has gained a good amount of new targets in Ting-Lu, Chien-Pao, Chi-Yu, Baxcalibur, Clodsire, Garganacle, Glimmora, Great Tusk, Iron Treads, Iron Moth, Roaring Moon, Quaquaval, Skeledirge, Kingambit, Iron Valiant, Iron Hands, Ceruledge, Meowscarada, Slither Wing, the Paldean Tauros forms, and more. An immunity to Grass as a Water-type gives Azumarill a great amount of defensive utility and naturally good matchups on paper versus a lot of Pokemon, and Thick Fat compounds Azumarill's resistances. Aqua Jet has a lot of value in hyper offensive metagames. I see Choice Band and AV as the best sets for Azumarill if Dondozo is really prominent in the metagame, as Belly Drum sets look like they'd have a hard time reliably getting through Dondozo without dedicating to Aqua Jet + Grass Tera Blast + Ice Punch. Azumarill's Dragon-type immunity looks very useful in a metagame with lots of strong Dragon-types, but lacking a super-effective priority move versus them is a bit unfortunate compared to other physical attackers like Chien-Pao. Pokemon absent in Gen 8 which return to see niches in Gen 9 like Breloom and Floatzel are conveniently checked by Azumarill. Azumarill just looks like it has a very strong position in this pool of Pokemon.

I think Gyarados is a bit worse than in SS because of the loss of Power Whip. Bulky Water-types or Water-immune Pokemon like Dondozo, Quagsire, Gastrodon, and Rotom-Wash either force you into Tera Grass + Tera Blast or conceding that your sweeper will not sweep without dedicated support. Moxie + Intimidate is still a great combination, but Gyarados has a lot of competition from Pokemon which can either better use Tera like Dragonite or Pokemon less dependent on Tera like Dragapult.

Hawlucha lost its best partner, Rillaboom, and backups like the Tapus are not available. Indeedee-F looks to be Hawlucha's most consistent partner now, and offering Healing Wish and priority protection aren't bad traits. However, Hawlucha would probably prefer the Defense boost, as it is vulnerable to a lot of the priority being thrown around the metagame. Mold Breaker is actually great, as Hawlucha ignores Unaware, and competitors like Tinkaton and Haxorus don't measure up. Veluza might eke out a niche with Fillet Away, but Hawlucha seems much more consistent at sweeping with the right support than the fish.

Hippowdon lost Toxic in the generational shift and Gen 9 halved the PP of Slack Off. Gen 9 more like Ice-9. Boom. Reference. Seriously though, Hippowdon's defensive values being curtailed is unfortunate, but the Hippo has room to run Rock coverage now, making it much less passive and much more able to lean into the damage boost from Sand Force. I'd like to touch on Sand a little more later in the post, so I'll leave it here that I see Hippowdon as "pretty good" and likely to improve once the metagame is more settled.

Krookodile lost Knock Off, which is seriously significant for a Dark-type attacker. A plethora of competing Dark-types like Chien-Pao, Roaring Moon, Kingambit, Ting-Lu, and Chi-Yu are seriously challenging to Krookodile's place in the metagame. The pool of available Pokemon is flush with a lot of strong and scary priority users like the aforementioned Chien-Pao, Breloom, and Azumarill, which is not fun for Krookodile. Krookodile probably still has a niche with how great of a combo Moxie + Intimidate is, especially on a Pokemon not weak to rocks, but Krookodile won't be able to make the same progress it could last generation without an update to its movepool.

Another significant "loser" of the movepool changes in Gen 9. Slowbro now lacks Teleport, Scald, and Toxic while also having halved PP on its recovery move. Slowking gives Slowbro a run for its money as a slow pivot, as Slowking has access to the move Chilly Reception. Dondozo, Azumarill, Rotom-Wash, and Toxapex all bring varying types of defensive utility that Slowbro lacks. The pool of available Pokemon is very heavy in Dark-types, and great Ghost-types like Gholdengo, Dragapult, and Annihilape don't make Slowbro's job any easier. Slowbro looks to be one of the bigger losers of the generational shift.

Blissey does not enjoy the shift to Gen 9, where its recovery move has had its PP halved, and it lost Toxic, Wish, Heal Bell, and Teleport. It's still unopposed, perhaps even more unopposed now that Clef is gone, as a pink blob with great special bulk. However, this role has been diminished by the mechanical shape of Gen 9. A Ghost-immunity and Tera opening the door to incredible defensive type changes mean Blissey will likely stay relevant.

If you've been at all in touch with OU over the past month and a half, you'll know Dragonite is one of the most effective users of Tera. Pokebilities grants Dragonite Inner Focus on top of Multiscale to block Intimidate. Salamence is an obviously competitive Dragon-type with its combo of Intimidate + Moxie, but Tera pushes Dragonite over the edge. It's unfortunate that Dragonite is unable to overwhelm Dondozo, but offensive revenge killers like Chien-Pao are very vulnerable to Tera + Extreme Speed. Unaware being more common might limit Dragonite, but a strong matchup versus Clodsire helps Dragonite's case. Dragonite benefits a lot from the transition to Gen 9, perhaps more than any other returning Pokemon.

Toxapex losing Scald, Toxic, and Knock Off in the generational transition while its recovery move had its PP halved is pretty unfortunate, but The Pex still has great bulk, excellent status spreading ability, and pivoting power. Absorbing Toxic Spikes from Glimmora is pretty beneficial in a metagame where removal is challenged by Gholdengo. Merciless as an ability is a bit of an unexpected double-edged sword, as you can activate Anger Point on Krookodile, Tauros' Paldean forms, and Primeape, although these Pokemon are likely to be limited/overshadowed. Chilling Water can have self-defeating effects versus Defiant Pokemon like Annihilape or Kingambit and Competitive Pokemon like Kilowattrel. However, these situations aren't so common or hard to prevent that Toxapex is inhibited.

Like with Hippowdon I have a larger passage on Sand below but Tyranitar enjoys less competition as a Sand Pokemon from Gigalith. Fewer Magic Guard Pokemon to partner with is sad, but fewer to play against gives Tyranitar an advantage in the war of passive damage. Tera and the volatility of an unexplored metagame might keep Tyranitar down a bit.

Weavile lost Triple Axel and Knock Off in the same generation Chien-Pao was introduced. I don't see any role for Weavile in this current metagame.

I'd also like to rapid-fire cover a few returning Pokemon which deserve attention. I went by the OU viability rankings like readytolose but there's definitely a few other Pokemon worthy of consideration.

Spoiler

Amoonguss doesn't have to contend with Clefable, Reuniclus, or as many competing and good Regenerator Pokemon. Amoonguss is really solid in standard OU, and Pokebilities incentivizes its use further by adding Effect Spore as a method to further punish physical attackers. Amoonguss in practice might have to fear Ice coverage from Azumarill and struggles with Poison Heal on Breloom, but it's still in a great position to prey on Water, Fighting, Fairy, and Grass types.

Washtom doesn't benefit from Pokebilities' main effect, and the effect it has on other Pokemon goes both ways for Washtom. Clodsire, Quagsire, and Gastrodon having free water immunities is obviously negative, and Washtom doesn't even have Defog anymore to clear their hazards, let alone Toxic to wear them down. Sticky Hold being free on Gastrodon is just as troubling, and prevents choiced sets from making progress. However, Washtom still boasts a great offensive typing, pivoting ability, and it can beat Unaware Dondozo as a setup sweeper. Great matchups into the paradox Donphan forms is an appreciated quality that will get better as the meta ages.

Hatterene has a very privileged position in the shape of the OU hazard metagame. In Pokebilities, this seems to be the same. Tera and a ton of utility options still make Hatterene a great support Pokemon, and there's a dearth of available Fairy-types to draw from.

Volcarona is an excellent abuser of Tera but does not enjoy the increase in Unaware Pokemon and Water-types. Azumarill with its Thick Fat + Sap Sipper + Aqua Jet puts a ceiling on how viable Volcarona can be, even with Tera as a tool in its kit. Flame Body and Swarm simultaneously is an appreciated buff.

Scizor lost Roost and Knock Off but holds a strong position in standard OU for its pivoting ability and priority. Swarm is a nice little buff to the traditional Technician Scizor. Resistances to priority like Extreme Speed and Ice Shard while offering Bullet Punch and the potential to Tera Steel makes Scizor a significant offensive threat.

Chilly Reception helps Slowking to retain the slow pivoting ability it rose to the forefront for in Gen 8, although the recovery move nerfs and movepool changes to remove Toxic, Scald, and Teleport were very unfortunate. A lot of the early metagame is filled with physical attackers, Dark and Ghost types, and very offensive Pokemon, which is very limiting to Slowking.

Torkoal and Sun get to go crazy with the available Protosynthesis paradox Pokemon. However, Scovillain is banned due to Moody, and so Sun is left without a very obvious candidate for a Chlorophyll sweeper. It could be argued that Protosynthesis' boosts are enough, but Sun sorely misses Venusaur.

Ditto is fine for playing around Regenerator cores and turning the tables on setup sweepers, but Unaware Pokemon like Clodsire are already able to shut down setup sweepers pretty effectively. Then again, there's plenty of scary setup sweepers early in this metagame to make Ditto an attractive option.

Rain lost a number of tools like Zapdos, Tornadus-T, Flip Turn on Barraskewda, and Ferrothorn, making it a harder sell. Floatzel, Barraskewda, Scizor, Azumarill, and Kilowattrel are great options, but an increase in Water and Electric immunities across the board might be limiting.

A returning cut Pokemon, Masquerain is one of few to have Sticky Web. Masquerain doesn't exactly benefit from the Pokebilities buff. Heavy-Duty Boots innately makes webs less consistent. However, webs are difficult to remove when paired with Gholdengo. Watch out for Kingambit.

An Electric-immunity on an Electric Terrain setter is handy, although Pincurchin's poor stats and lack of pivoting ability really restrict it as team support on teams featuring Quark Drive Pokemon. Pinc is also pretty offensively threatening versus Defoggers like Corviknight.

A built-in Attack boost after taking Dark-type moves while packing Intimidate and a Fire-immunity buffs up Arcanine just a bit more. Extreme Speed, Morning Sun, and other coverage and utility moves round out Arcanine's game, but it's still a bit limited. Intimidate will trigger Kingambit's Defiant, which is unfortunate on a Pokemon that otherwise has a solid matchup.

Ice Body yummy passive snow healing. Avalugg yucky special defense.

Blaze + Solar Power to back up Sun teams looks deadly.

Yay now your sweeper can't get crit or spored. Also Cloyster has Drill Run this generation. And you can always Tera your way out of a bad sweep.

No buff from Pokebilities and it lost Defog + Roost which is sad. However, Tera can make Hydreigon go crazy if you're willing to spring it on a Dragon-type that's not Dragapult, Dragonite, Salamence, or Garchomp.

Identical to how it is in standard OU except now Wood Hammer is even better for Waters and there's more Unaware Pokemon. I don't really see Mimikyu taking off.

Another setup sweeper that can tera its way out of a bad situation? You shouldn't have. Obligated Weak Armor means Polteageist really needs to commit to sweeps, but tera can make them easier to pull off, and Stored Power will be even stronger.

One of the few remaining Fairy-types after Dexit 2. Sylveon unfortunately lost Mystical Fire in the generational transition, but it could be a budget replacement for Clefairy given its typing, strong Fairy STAB, and Cute Charm. Kommo-o also isn't around to force it into running Moonblast or a Psychic move.

Flame Body + Heavy-Duty Boots have domesticated Talonflame in standard play. However, Gale Wings is naturally available in Pokebilities. Talonflame has access to all of Defog, Roost, U-Turn, and Will-O-Wisp, making it a very competent support Pokemon with a naturally good matchup versus physical attackers like Breloom. I could see it carving a niche in Pokebilities.

SV limited the Pokedex once again to 400, shuffling out hundreds of Pokemon while making room for some Pokemon not present in SS. Some "old" Pokemon like Breloom are very clearly effective, even without the Pokebilities buff, but there's a good number of returning Pokemon worth an eyecatch.

Returning Previously Cut Pokemon

Breloom was absent from SS Pokebilities. Breloom gained Close Combat and Bulldoze in the transition to Gen 9, both of which Breloom can use to great effect. In Pokebilities Breloom can employ two great abilities in Technician and Poison Heal. Natural longevity goes a long way, and Breloom also has an advantaged matchup as a physical attacker versus Dondozo. I see Breloom being really great early on. Fighting-type priority in Technician Mach Punch is fantastic in a metagame flush with Dark-types, and it can take out Tera Steel Pokemon too. Effect Spore may not seem too useful, but Breloom's longevity with Poison Heal and the stickiness of status in a metagame without clerics might be better than it seems. Breloom has already proven itself in OU, and it would not be surprising if it was even more valuable in a metagame where it can use both of its best abilities.

This one is sort of cheating, but Cinderace is a "returning" Pokemon that was not legal in Gen 8! Libero now only changes Cinderace's type on the first turn it uses a move, which is limiting on paper, but Cinderace can still pick and choose its type as will. As an offensive pivot with U-Turn, Cinderace doesn't struggle being limited to one use of Libero each time it comes in, as often it will become a Bug-type and U-Turn out. Blaze remaining in Cinderace's set gives some extra firepower (haha) to Bulk Up sets given they now commit to the Fighting-type. Cinderace might be a bit overwhelming considering nerfs to multiple defensive Pokemon like Toxapex, Slowbro, and defensive variants of Dragonite or Salamence, but Azumarill and Dondozo are made even better as a result of Pokebilities, and this may place a ceiling on Cinderace's potential to run through games. However, hazard removal is in a very challenged place with the presences of Glimmora and Gholdengo and the reduction in Pokemon with reliable hazard removal; this may make Heavy-Duty Boots pivot Cinderace overwhelming to slower teams, and Court Change is extremely powerful when considering G&G (Glimm and Ghold).

Floatzel's big moment is now. Barraskewda losing Flip Turn as Ferrothorn is cut opens up a niche for a fast physical Rain sweeper with strong Ice-type coverage. A lot of Rain's previous tools like Ferrothorn and Zapdos are now missing, which is unfortunate. Gyarados lost Power Whip, which is an obvious loss coming into a Generation where Quagsire + Gastrodon gained hazards and Clodsire + Dondozo exist. Pelipper is a key retain, and new options like Kilowattrel make up for the loss of Zapdos a bit. Hail has been replaced by Snow, and Floatzel could try Low Kick out for the Cetitan and Snow matchup. Sun has mutated into something less recognizable with the presence of Protosynthesis Pokemon, but Floatzel and Rain do have an advantaged matchup in this case. Water Veil is an okay addition, although the removal of Scald from many movesets and few obvious Will-O-Wisp users that Floatzel can take advantage of safely given its poor bulk makes this a more theoretical buff.

Bruxish, even with three great abilities and a crucial anti-priority ability, looks pretty limited and potentially outclassed in Gen 9. Bruxish lacks much defensive utility beyond being invulnerable to priority moves and having a 50% chance to dodge status moves, and the pool of Pokemon looks pretty tilted in favor of offense. Indeedee-F would probably provide more given that Psychic Terrain can enable teammates like Hawlucha, Armarouge, Espathra, and more. Another newcomer, Veluza, has Mold Breaker on top of Sharpness for breaking through Dondozo. Dondozo means setup Bruxish has a hard stop without using Tera on Bruxish and having the opponent unable/unwilling to Tera their own Dondozo. Maybe it will find a niche, but it will see a lot of competition outside of the limitations of low bulk and middling speed. A Scarf set would likely maximize the positive traits of this Pokemon, where Water is a valuable offensive typing to take care of threats like Chi-Yu and the paradox Donphans, and Crunch can OHKO Dragapult after rocks. However, most teams might be better off running a different Water-type with more defensive utility like Azumarill, Dondozo, Gastrodon, Quagsire, Gyarados, Quaquaval, Rotom-Wash, the slowtwins, Toxapex, or Paldean Tauros' Water form; there's a big sea of Water-types to choose from.

Alomomola doesn't benefit immensely from the main effect of Pokebilities, as Alomomola Rain stall doesn't look very sound without Ferrothorn. Alomomola lost all of Scald, Toxic, and Knock Off in Gen 9, limiting its capability to wear out targets on its own. Whirlpool trapping sets are possible, and Alomomola is an interesting candidate for defensive Terastallization.

There's been a significant cut of many great Fairy-types from Gen 8, but I don't know that there's been so many that Florges will be a wholesale replacement for Clefable. Azumarill, Grimmsnarl, and Hatterene individually bring a diverse level of defensive utility to teams. Tinkaton has a built-in Intimidate immunity in Pokebilities (if only it had an Earthquake immunity to follow-up on Salamence and Krookodile but you can't have everything), and Scream Tail is a similarly passive Fairy-type Wish passer. Tera Grass sure does make Florges status-immune, but it sacrifices the amazing defensive Fairy-typing and your opportunity to Tera a different Pokemon.

Body Press and the slight buff of Pokebilities don't seem enough to make Forretress a significant player in a metagame which has some really powerful threats ranging from the legendary treasures to Gholdengo to Corviknight. A lot of Pokemon gained access to Spikes, and Glimmora is a very competitive hazard stacker which is buffed further in Pokebilities. This one seems like a pass.

Hariyama gains access to all of Guts, Sheer Force, and Thick Fat, completely revamping its defensive-offensive value. Hariyama retains access to the much more restricted Knock Off. Thick Fat and Guts could give Hariyama some great value with checking Chien-Pao and Chi-Yu, although the two are quite strong and can bring Psychic coverage. Hariyama's longevity is pretty questionable, but there's a good amount of Pokemon Hariyama could check, such as Tyranitar, Cetitan, Cinderace, Iron Moth, Skeledirge, and Volcarona depending on sets. A damage boost from burn is great for a Pokemon with a Fire-resistance. Poor speed is another big hindrance to Hariyama. Sheer Force also gives Hariyama the freedom to pull out random coverage moves and throw out a lot of damage onto checks, and it's got a lot of coverage moves to employ in Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Zen Headbutt, Fire Punch, and Rock Slide. I think I'm overhyping it a bit, but Hariyama has a lot of offensive and defensive qualities to bring to the table.

I'm not super involved with Pokebilities so this is a pretty out of pocket take, but I think there should be some serious consideration given to the legality of Sand Veil + Snow Cloak Pokemon in the metagame. Standard OU already bans these evasion abilities under the pretense that they're uncompetitive.

Big Evasion

Pokebilities adds another turn of the screw to Pokemon with weather-based evasion abilities, as weather-setting Pokemon like Hippowdon benefit a lot from the multiple abilities mechanic. Pokemon with weather-based evasion abilities are much freer to use, as there is not an opportunity cost to running the ability thanks to the Pokebilities effect. Garchomp is already a decent threat in standard OU, and it's not hard to imagine that Garchomp is going to be effective in Pokebilities either.
It could be argued that Pokebilities is more fit to deal with evasion-abilities than standard OU in a bit of a counter-intuitive way; if you're incentivized to run weather, your opponent is just as incentivized to run different weather strategies, which can be disruptive. More outside of the vacuum, Pelipper and generally rain teams have a more advantageous matchup versus Sand and Snow, the two teamstyles which have access to weather-based evasion abilities. Sun possesses a lot of Protosynthesis tools to take advantage of even without an obviously good Chlorophyll Pokemon. However, I don't think players should have to build more linear teams with weather just to avoid losing games because Ice Shard went a little bit to the left on a Sub + SD Garchomp.
(Side note: I like the creative thinking with Tropius in an above post, but I think most Chlorphyll users are either too weak, too frail, or too easily worn into range of a lot of priority moves, and Azumarill's Grass immunity and quadruple Fire-resistance is pretty disruptive.)
| |
Most Sand Veil Pokemon are generally not on par with Garchomp and its power, but there are a few notable picks. Orthworm has its own flavor of potentially uncompetitive mechanic with Shed Tail, and it can give a really annoying set of resistances to sand teams while enabling setup sweepers.
Palossand seems a bit unfair itself with Shore Up healing 2/3 HP in sand on top of the evasion boost, and Palossand does have some potentially relevant targets to wall in Pawmot, Magnezone, Iron Hands, Iron Thorns, Glimmora, Grafaiai, Iron Moth, Toxapex, Toxicroak, and Toxtricity. Palossand's type works nicely with Tyranitar to alleviate Palossand's Dark and Ghost weaknesses while Tyranitar appreciates Palossand's Fighting-immunity. Tera opens the door for Water Compaction to be an actually useful ability; Poison, Steel, Water, Grass, and even Fairy could be creatively used to great effect with Tera. Sand Veil still protects Palossand from Sandstorm chip.
Cacturne, Donphan, Sandaconda, and Wugtrio seem like very poor abusers of the evasion from sand. Donphan is a big opportunity cost compared to its paradox forms and stacks sand team weaknesses. Sandaconda offers a way to reset sand with Sand Spit, benefits from its own Sand, and can find longevity with Shed Skin, but it seems pretty inconsistent compared to Palossand while not offering any additional resistances or features to Sand teams. Cacturne might add Spikes support and some useful immunities to Spore, Water-moves, and Psychic-moves, but its frailty and poor speed are significant liabilities comapred to more durable Dark and Grass types. Wugtrio is plainly not fit for an OU-level environment given its poor bulk in a priority-heavy metagame and limited movepool. You'd get more out of just running Azumarill or Gastrodon.
| |
I won't give as much attention to Snow as I will to Sand. I think Alolan Ninetales with Snow Warning + Snow Cloak was another mascot of uncompetitiveness (even more than Cute Charm Clefable), and thankfully its removal from the dex makes the Snow playstyle dependent on Abomasnow. Abomasnow doesn't have fantastic defensive utility even with a boost to its defenses, and it lacks standout power or speed. Abomasnow critically does not have Snow Cloak. Beartic can work with Cetitan on Snow but generally Cetitan is the more powerful of the two. Beartic did receive Close Combat but Cetitan is a bigger beneficiary of Pokebilities, as it adds Thick Fat and Sheer Force onto Slush Rush. However, Beartic in Snow is still an uncompetitive strategy. Aurora Veil + Snow Cloak + Snow's natural defense boost + Substitute make knocking out Beartic much more difficult when factoring in random misses. However, Beartic is a secondary snow sweeper to Cetitan, stacks weaknesses with Cetitan and Abomasnow, and still doesn't break through Dondozo without Tera Grass + Tera Blast + chip.

Garchomp is what I believe to be the mascot of how uncompetitive weather-based evasion can be. Garchomp's natural speed and power can make it a dangerous offensive Pokemon to play around. There are certainly offensive answers to Garchomp, and Dragapult's Infiltrator will ignore Substitute shenanigans, but there's always a risk of offensive checks simply missing and being taken out by Garchomp. There's a number of pretty strong offensive Dragon-types available to challenge Garchomp's slot, such as Roaring Moon, Dragapult, and Dragonite, and all of them can really make Terastallization work for them. However, none of this makes the nature of Garchomp any less uncompetitive in the metagame.
I think that to keep the metagame competitive, Sand Veil and Snow Cloak should be added to the Pokebilities banlist. Although this might seem like splitting hairs in an unexplored metagame, I don't think developing the metagame with evasion abilities legal is a good direction or kosher with the way tiering policy goes.
If the metagame doesn't generally shape itself in a way where Garchomp, Sand, or Snow are manageable, this could continue to be an issue or become a bigger issue down the line. This generation seems forecasted to have a lot of tiering issues and additional content to wade through, where Terastallization is a hot topic, Home's full connectivity with SV is confirmed but does not have a release date, event raids look like there will be a trickle of unreleased Pokemon like Charizard and Cinderace. The potential for DLC like with SS would also shake up the metagame. This is a pretty significant reason why I think choosing to rip off the bandaid and ban evasion abilities now would be a good decision. There's not necessarily a guarantee of a "settled" metagame, and removing an uncompetitive element would really help quiet some of the noise.
One could argue that Garchomp / Sand Veil / evasion abilities are not going to be relevant in every game, that there are bigger issues and more obviously broken Pokemon, or that Garchomp and even evasion abilities have some positive qualities in Pokebilities. However, none of these arguments address or refute that evasion abilities themselves are uncompetitive and have already been restricted from the standard OU format. Even the argument that going after evasion abilities in an unproven metagame is bad tiering policy is flawed, as if something is uncompetitive, it should be restricted, regardless of how "old" a metagame is.
I think the most sound argument that evasion abilities are not the issue is that pre-evolved Pokemon like Cetoddle, Cubchoo, and Gabite would be really poor choices and are obviously inconsistent at making this playstyle work. However, I don't think there's an easy fix, and like with Arena Trap, leaving an NFE with a broken ability untouched doesn't solve the issue of the mechanic itself being uncompetitive. A straight up ban of all Snow Cloak + Sand Veil Pokemon is the cleanest solution.
There will definitely be fallout to banning Garchomp and a lot of other Pokemon. A lot of the Pokemon which have broken abilities being unavailable are not much of a loss to the tier, as Dugtrio, Glalie, and Gothitelle aren't exactly fan-favorite Pokemon or useful in a very high-power competitive metagame. Garchomp is unlike them in being fairly balanced without Sand Veil in play. However, this is still a poor argument to keep Sand Veil, and I think evasion abilities should go.

This post is already very long so I'll save my impressions of new Pokemon for another time.
To make this post not just a series of theorymons, I'll share a team I built: Link

I built this team as a hyper offensive team that denies priority from opposing offenses and hazard removal from more bulky teams. I feel proud that each Pokemon on the team generally has a well-thought out Tera type, as Terastallization isn't my favorite mechanic. Great Tusk might be replaceable, but Glimmora + Ghosts + Hawlucha + FinDD seems to me like a solid, if linear, offensive roster. Hawlucha really appreciates protection from Ice Shards from Baxcalibur and Chien-Pao, and it's a physical sweeper with Mold Breaker for Unaware walls.

Thanks for the shout-out XD. This was a great read. Corrected a few things, but there's one more I think I should mention, specifically for returning pokemon. Ursaring. Quick Feet+Guts makes it have the absolute strongest Facade in the game, which can be made even more lethal with Terastalization. Ability to set Swords Dance and some of the best coverage imaginable makes Ursaring a HUGE threat. It's not all great as it has single nature syndrome and four moveslot syndrome, but even with only four moveslots, Ursaring can wreak absolute havoc

Actually arguably worse, since Inner Focus prevents Defiant from activating off of Intimidate and Vital Spirit is pretty situational. It should still be an incredible mon though.

Another important thing against it, it can't run it's Rest sets anymore since Vital Spirit blocks Rest. Obviously still going to be phenomenal, but it now actually has to worry about switching into status because while it does have Taunt, you can't use Taunt while you switch Ape in

Gumshoos @ Choice Band
Ability: Stakeout / Adaptability / Strong Jaw
Tera Type: Dark
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Body Slam
- Crunch
- U-turn
- Ice Fang

Gumshoos, a trashy first route rodent, gets three awesome abilities. It hits super super hard, especially if you Tera it.

+2 252+ Atk Choice Band Gumshoos Body Slam vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Avalugg: 250-296 (63.4 - 75.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Adaptability Stakeout

Dark Tera Crunch with Stakeout Adaptability and Strong Jaw
+2 252+ Atk Choice Band Gumshoos Crunch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Avalugg on a critical hit: 352-416 (89.3 - 105.5%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO
(crit to show strong jaw)

This guy is frail, but STRONG

Ah, Gumshoos. One of the most fun pokemon to use in the meta. Unfortunately, even it wasn't spared from a nerf. The removal of Hyper Fang and Return is a major detriment to Gumshoos without Double Edge. After Strong Jaw and Adaptability, Hyper Fang was a base 240 power move with a chance to flinch. Almost as strong as Explosion. Does 40-45% to an uninvested Aggron switching in. Yes, it's not invested in physical defense or HP, but it's still a base 180 defense mon with a quad resist. Trick Room is overall much worse without Crawdaunt, Melmetal, and Alolawak, but Gumshoos getting this nerf makes it even harder. Gumshoos was one of the main Trick Room hard hitters. 170 power Body Slam with a 30% chance to freeze is still great, but it's absolutely a major drop from 240 power with a chance to flinch, especially off of a base 110 attack, which is overshadowed by so much in this gen

 

[typhlosion787]

Major question, with the set of bans starting at the week 1 OU quickbans, is the list of bans going to update every time OU receives more bans or will it depend? For instance, I think that without Rest as an option, Annihilape could be slightly more manageable, but I don't think Chi-Yu would be any less broken just because other pokemon get more abilities. The only extra roadblock it has is that Azumarill is 4x resistant to it's fire stab instead of just 2x, but still gets blown away by +2 grass Tera Blast

 

[Hpdsd]

Major question, with the set of bans starting at the week 1 OU quickbans, is the list of bans going to update every time OU receives more bans or will it depend? For instance, I think that without Rest as an option, Annihilape could be slightly more manageable, but I don't think Chi-Yu would be any less broken just because other pokemon get more abilities. The only extra roadblock it has is that Azumarill is 4x resistant to it's fire stab instead of just 2x, but still gets blown away by +2 grass Tera Blast

Azumarill has Sap Sipper but it could still use something like tera electric so i agree with your point.

 

[Ivy]

Good point about both Chi-Yu and Annihilape. That's an interesting self-nerf with the ape. I'll file for a Chi-Yu ban.

 

[typhlosion787]

Good point about both Chi-Yu and Annihilape. That's an interesting self-nerf with the ape. I'll file for a Chi-Yu ban.

My main concern isn't just Chi-Yu only, but other possibly incoming bans. While Ape may be easier to deal with due to being forced into using Taunt to prevent status instead of just healing it with Rest, if other pokemon like Chien-Pao or Garganacl get banned in OU, will the same bans transfer to pokebilities or will it be held back and voted on by the community?

 

[typhlosion787]

Azumarill has Sap Sipper but it could still use something like tera electric so i agree with your point.

Sorry about that, my brain wasn't at full capacity when writing that message because of how late it was. But yeah, while Azu exists for Chi-Yu, it isn't staving it off repeatedly, even despite a quad fire resist, a dark resist, and a grass Tera Blast immunity. You need AV to take Dark Pulse a couple of times, so you have no Leftovers or even Rest recovery to help your longevity. Wish support is good, but it's not the most common for a reason, it simply isn't on good pokemon most of the time. Plus, let's not act like Chi-Yu can't punish a Wish pass attempt by setting up a Plot on Boots sets or nailing a Specs Pulse. To add on to that, there's always the flinch chance. Hell, Lava Plume even has solid enough power and may eventually be used to cripple Azu over time if Chi-Yu was allowed in the meta. Does this mean Azu isn't a check? No. Azu is still a check, but that's just it. Chi-Yu has no counters, only checks. Yes, Azu is the best of them, but Chi-Yu still has ways to break past it and make it redundant, which just goes to show how overbearing it likely still would be in pokebilities

 

[typhlosion787]

So far throughout gen 9, I've made a few teams so far for different eras (pre-Bundle and Palafin ban and pre Chi-Yu ban). Of course, teams adapt and change over time to combat rising threats. As more pokemon receive bans, more pokemon are able to have legitimate roles in the meta. Since we are going with base OU bans for the most part and adding on or taking back as the meta continues, OMs often end up in significantly different shape. For instance, in gen 8 pokebilities, despite not even being OU proper, both Conkeldurr and Dracozolt proved to be overwhelming for the meta in the minds of many. However, I do think there is room for mons to be tested. Personally, I think Annihilape is the only current mon that should be tested, although I strongly believe that the testing should be in private and strictly among those who have experience with and more knowledge of the meta to determine if it would still be overbearing for the meta. However, the point of this post isn't to talk about which pokemon will and won't be overwhelming, it's to show off my most recent team that I have made along with my thought process and the roles of the various pokemon.

https://pokepast.es/3d41b40c191bfef0

This team is focussed on wracking up repeated residual damage and abusing pokemon that take major advantage of the small push given by the opposing team being weakened down more.

Garganacl, or Garg as I will be referring to it, is an incredibly bulky pokemon that has the ability to apply heavy offensive pressure in order to force switches through the threat of chip damage. Recently, many people have been using Toxapex or Gholdengo with Covert Cloak to check Garg. In an attempt to adapt, many players in SPL started running Curse+Earthquake, a note which I have taken out of their book in order to force more switches. Yes, Unaware exists, but Skeledirge is weak to ground and doesn't want to give up Boots to run Cloak, Clodsire loves Boots to avoid hazard damage and Sludge to dissuade Trick along with also being weak to Earthquake, and Dondozo much prefers the residual recovery of Leftovers or the instant sleep healing capability of Chesto Berry along with taking 25% from Salt Cure without terastalizing. The only Unaware user left is Quagsire, and while Cloak has other competition in the item slot like Leftovers, Boots, and Helmet, the item isn't such a monumental part of the gameplan of using Quagsire like it is for the other three, allowing it to use Cloak more freely. However, along with taking 25% from Salt Cure if not holding Cloak, Quagsire is mostly outclassed by the other Unaware users, making it to where Garg is able to set up without much worry of Unaware pokemon. Due to this and Clear Body preventing direct stat drops (such as Intimidate or Leer), Haze is the only way to reliably, repeatedly remove boosts, a move that is incredibly rare for the most part. I originally wanted to have Garg run a Stealth Rock set, but decided against it in order to run this set, believing that it will force more switches (unless Gholdengo is tera flying). Tera Water to have a phenomenal defensive type and Cloak to beat other Gargs in the Salt war, especially since the tera of choice is water

Ting-Lu is one of the major gears that allows the machine to work on the team. You can't stack hazards without a Spikes setter, and Ting-Lu is one of the best. 4 speed EVs are to outspeed other Ting-Lu that have no investment in order to Taunt them and the other EVs are self explanatory. May end up replacing Taunt with Ruination eventually, but I like being able to disable other defensive pokemon while enabling your own pressure to a better degree. Spikes is obvious as it's a hazard stack team, and Whirlwind pairs great with hazards while simultaneously getting even better with support from Salt Cure. Tera fairy to be able to take fighting and bug type moves much better while also removing the detrimental water, grass, ice, and fairy weaknesses.

The boon of Gholdengo is amazing for hazard stack teams as it blocks the most reliable forms of hazard removal. Amazing base typing with three immunities and solid bulk with investment, lethal power with the perfect coverage of stab Shadow Ball with Focus Blast for coverage, especially when combined with Nasty Plot, and Recover to increase Gholdengo's already good longevity and let it block hazard removal throughout the course of a game. Tera flying is to beat most Garg sets as it resists Body Press, is immune to Earthquake, and while Salt Cure is super effective, the low base power in tandem with Cloak means it won't do much. However, the tera flying also means that Tusk and Treads can't spam Earthquake as reliably while also not having a super effective Knock Off. While you are opening yourself up to be hit by Ice Spinner, Spinner generally faces a ton of competition from Knock, making it significantly less common.

I already had 3 pokemon focused on mostly defense in Garg, Ting-Lu, and Gholdy, so I wanted my rocks setter to be an offensive one. I also wanted a fast pokemon so my team couldn't just get ran over by hyperoffense teams. I felt Garchomp fit both of this role great due to its stab combination threatening fairies and steels with Earthquake. I decided to go with a Life Orb mixed attacker due to the nuclear power that is Earthquake+Draco+Fire Blast threatening more kills and pressuring more switches, allowing me to set up rocks easier. The sheer power of an invested Draco with Life Orb without the drawback of confusion that Outrage has in tandem with the much higher damage of Fire Blast compared to Fire Fang on Corviknight and Amoongus (as well as avoiding contact punishment) is what made me choose the Life Orb set instead of a SD physical attacker. Tera fire is for a much harder smack on Corv and Amoongus if you're willing to make it rocks weak.

I wanted a pokemon that takes advantage of the metagame's gimmick other than Garg, so I decided to go with Ursaring. Originally, I had Thunder Punch, but after calcing, I found that burned Facade does higher damage than Thunder Punch to Dondozo and tera fighting Close Combat does more damage to Corviknight, so I made the decision to drop it for Trailblaze, allowing me to raise Ursaring's already 50% boosted speed after status even more. After Status, Jolly, and max investment, Ursaring has an effective base 107 speed. After a Trailblaze, you outspeed even more, including most scarfers and Dragapult, allowing you to stay in more instead of having to switch out due to other pokemon being faster. To go along with this, the strongest current Facade in the game without terastalization makes Ursaring's damage output simply ridiculous when you take into account how it has ways to threaten ghosts, rocks, and steels with its amazing coverage. For some examples,
252 Atk Guts Tera Fighting Ursaring Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 204-241 (51.1 - 60.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Guts Ursaring Facade (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 225-265 (44.6 - 52.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
I figured with its already ridiculous power, Ursaring would be a perfect fit for a team like this.

For my final pokemon, I decided to go with another mixed attacker with a Choice Scarf Iron Valiant. Valiant is currently one of the strongest mons in the base OU metagame with its brilliant stats and typing, and it is similarly great in pokebilities in my humble opinion. EVs are to outspeed Scarf Chomp with everything else shoved into attacking stats to make it as scary as possible. Knock is to pressure mons with item removal, increasing the pressure of Salt Cure and hazard shuffling even further. It also hits Gholdy super effectively before tera, which is a massive deal. For the final move, I wanted something to smack Corviknight and SpDef Dondozo with huge damage. I decided to go for tera dark because it makes Knock Off even harder to switch into, increasing Valiant's coverage power to an even higher degree while additionally increasing its utility due to the item removal that Knock provides, which is absolutely monumental.

I'm sorry about the long read and thanks if you made it this far. This is the first gen 9 pokebilities team I've shared and its one of my favorites, so I wanted to go really in depth about everything. I normally use the ClodCorv core on around 90% of my teams and wanted to try something else while sticking to a playstyle I enjoy. As always, if you have any constructive criticisms or team suggestions, feel free to share. I absolutely love this meta and it would be great to see others engaging more before it eventually becomes OMotM. While Home is coming out with new threats soon, I have wanted to get a head start on the meta and have been making a ton of teams as a result. My next post should be related to my massive threat list all crammed into one small google document, but that is taking a while to work on due to having a job and working almost 40 hours each week. I can't make any promises of exactly when it'll come out, but I'm making an active effort to make it come out before April. If it's outdated by then, oh well.

 

[Hyper-Go-ons]

So far throughout gen 9, I've made a few teams so far for different eras (pre-Bundle and Palafin ban and pre Chi-Yu ban). Of course, teams adapt and change over time to combat rising threats. As more pokemon receive bans, more pokemon are able to have legitimate roles in the meta. Since we are going with base OU bans for the most part and adding on or taking back as the meta continues, OMs often end up in significantly different shape. For instance, in gen 8 pokebilities, despite not even being OU proper, both Conkeldurr and Dracozolt proved to be overwhelming for the meta in the minds of many. However, I do think there is room for mons to be tested. Personally, I think Annihilape is the only current mon that should be tested, although I strongly believe that the testing should be in private and strictly among those who have experience with and more knowledge of the meta to determine if it would still be overbearing for the meta. However, the point of this post isn't to talk about which pokemon will and won't be overwhelming, it's to show off my most recent team that I have made along with my thought process and the roles of the various pokemon.

https://pokepast.es/3d41b40c191bfef0

This team is focussed on wracking up repeated residual damage and abusing pokemon that take major advantage of the small push given by the opposing team being weakened down more.

Garganacl, or Garg as I will be referring to it, is an incredibly bulky pokemon that has the ability to apply heavy offensive pressure in order to force switches through the threat of chip damage. Recently, many people have been using Toxapex or Gholdengo with Covert Cloak to check Garg. In an attempt to adapt, many players in SPL started running Curse+Earthquake, a note which I have taken out of their book in order to force more switches. Yes, Unaware exists, but Skeledirge is weak to ground and doesn't want to give up Boots to run Cloak, Clodsire loves Boots to avoid hazard damage and Sludge to dissuade Trick along with also being weak to Earthquake, and Dondozo much prefers the residual recovery of Leftovers or the instant sleep healing capability of Chesto Berry along with taking 25% from Salt Cure without terastalizing. The only Unaware user left is Quagsire, and while Cloak has other competition in the item slot like Leftovers, Boots, and Helmet, the item isn't such a monumental part of the gameplan of using Quagsire like it is for the other three, allowing it to use Cloak more freely. However, along with taking 25% from Salt Cure if not holding Cloak, Quagsire is mostly outclassed by the other Unaware users, making it to where Garg is able to set up without much worry of Unaware pokemon. Due to this and Clear Body preventing direct stat drops (such as Intimidate or Leer), Haze is the only way to reliably, repeatedly remove boosts, a move that is incredibly rare for the most part. I originally wanted to have Garg run a Stealth Rock set, but decided against it in order to run this set, believing that it will force more switches (unless Gholdengo is tera flying). Tera Water to have a phenomenal defensive type and Cloak to beat other Gargs in the Salt war, especially since the tera of choice is water

Ting-Lu is one of the major gears that allows the machine to work on the team. You can't stack hazards without a Spikes setter, and Ting-Lu is one of the best. 4 speed EVs are to outspeed other Ting-Lu that have no investment in order to Taunt them and the other EVs are self explanatory. May end up replacing Taunt with Ruination eventually, but I like being able to disable other defensive pokemon while enabling your own pressure to a better degree. Spikes is obvious as it's a hazard stack team, and Whirlwind pairs great with hazards while simultaneously getting even better with support from Salt Cure. Tera fairy to be able to take fighting and bug type moves much better while also removing the detrimental water, grass, ice, and fairy weaknesses.

The boon of Gholdengo is amazing for hazard stack teams as it blocks the most reliable forms of hazard removal. Amazing base typing with three immunities and solid bulk with investment, lethal power with the perfect coverage of stab Shadow Ball with Focus Blast for coverage, especially when combined with Nasty Plot, and Recover to increase Gholdengo's already good longevity and let it block hazard removal throughout the course of a game. Tera flying is to beat most Garg sets as it resists Body Press, is immune to Earthquake, and while Salt Cure is super effective, the low base power in tandem with Cloak means it won't do much. However, the tera flying also means that Tusk and Treads can't spam Earthquake as reliably while also not having a super effective Knock Off. While you are opening yourself up to be hit by Ice Spinner, Spinner generally faces a ton of competition from Knock, making it significantly less common.

I already had 3 pokemon focused on mostly defense in Garg, Ting-Lu, and Gholdy, so I wanted my rocks setter to be an offensive one. I also wanted a fast pokemon so my team couldn't just get ran over by hyperoffense teams. I felt Garchomp fit both of this role great due to its stab combination threatening fairies and steels with Earthquake. I decided to go with a Life Orb mixed attacker due to the nuclear power that is Earthquake+Draco+Fire Blast threatening more kills and pressuring more switches, allowing me to set up rocks easier. The sheer power of an invested Draco with Life Orb without the drawback of confusion that Outrage has in tandem with the much higher damage of Fire Blast compared to Fire Fang on Corviknight and Amoongus (as well as avoiding contact punishment) is what made me choose the Life Orb set instead of a SD physical attacker. Tera fire is for a much harder smack on Corv and Amoongus if you're willing to make it rocks weak.

I wanted a pokemon that takes advantage of the metagame's gimmick other than Garg, so I decided to go with Ursaring. Originally, I had Thunder Punch, but after calcing, I found that burned Facade does higher damage than Thunder Punch to Dondozo and tera fighting Close Combat does more damage to Corviknight, so I made the decision to drop it for Trailblaze, allowing me to raise Ursaring's already 50% boosted speed after status even more. After Status, Jolly, and max investment, Ursaring has an effective base 107 speed. After a Trailblaze, you outspeed even more, including most scarfers and Dragapult, allowing you to stay in more instead of having to switch out due to other pokemon being faster. To go along with this, the strongest current Facade in the game without terastalization makes Ursaring's damage output simply ridiculous when you take into account how it has ways to threaten ghosts, rocks, and steels with its amazing coverage. For some examples,
252 Atk Guts Tera Fighting Ursaring Close Combat vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Corviknight: 204-241 (51.1 - 60.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery
252 Atk Guts Ursaring Facade (140 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Dondozo: 225-265 (44.6 - 52.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock
I figured with its already ridiculous power, Ursaring would be a perfect fit for a team like this.

For my final pokemon, I decided to go with another mixed attacker with a Choice Scarf Iron Valiant. Valiant is currently one of the strongest mons in the base OU metagame with its brilliant stats and typing, and it is similarly great in pokebilities in my humble opinion. EVs are to outspeed Scarf Chomp with everything else shoved into attacking stats to make it as scary as possible. Knock is to pressure mons with item removal, increasing the pressure of Salt Cure and hazard shuffling even further. It also hits Gholdy super effectively before tera, which is a massive deal. For the final move, I wanted something to smack Corviknight and SpDef Dondozo with huge damage. I decided to go for tera dark because it makes Knock Off even harder to switch into, increasing Valiant's coverage power to an even higher degree while additionally increasing its utility due to the item removal that Knock provides, which is absolutely monumental.

I'm sorry about the long read and thanks if you made it this far. This is the first gen 9 pokebilities team I've shared and its one of my favorites, so I wanted to go really in depth about everything. I normally use the ClodCorv core on around 90% of my teams and wanted to try something else while sticking to a playstyle I enjoy. As always, if you have any constructive criticisms or team suggestions, feel free to share. I absolutely love this meta and it would be great to see others engaging more before it eventually becomes OMotM. While Home is coming out with new threats soon, I have wanted to get a head start on the meta and have been making a ton of teams as a result. My next post should be related to my massive threat list all crammed into one small google document, but that is taking a while to work on due to having a job and working almost 40 hours each week. I can't make any promises of exactly when it'll come out, but I'm making an active effort to make it come out before April. If it's outdated by then, oh well.

I like the Gholdengo set, but it has nothing to hit super effectively Grimmsnarl.

 

[typhlosion787]

I like the Gholdengo set, but it has nothing to hit super effectively Grimmsnarl.

You are right about that. The reason I decided to go with Plot over Make it Rain or Flash Cannon was to abuse switches even more by setting up. After finishing the team, I decided not to change it because Valiant destroys Grimmsnarl

 

[Hyper-Go-ons]

By the way, Kilowattel get all of its useful abilities (however, Wind Power can be situational)

Kilowattrel @ Heavy-Duty Boots / Choice Specs
Ability: Wind Power / Volt Absorb / Competitive
Tera Type: Electric / Water
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid / Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunderbolt / Thunder
- Hurricane
- Volt Switch
- Weather Ball / Tera Blast

Rain support can help Kilowattel a lot. Thunderbolt and Water Tera Blast can be used if there isn't rain.

 

[skippergamez]

Some funny mons for my favorite OM

Pelliper can become a bulky water with Drizzle + Rain Dish

Pelliper @ Leftovers
Calm Nature
0 Atk IVs
4 Def/252 SpAtk/252 SpDef

-Hurricane
-U-Turn
-Roost
-Knock Off

Hariyama is Conkeldurr at home
Conk Jr. @ Flame Orb
Adamant Nature
252 HP/252 Atk/4 Def
-Facade
-Drain Punch
-Poison Jab
-Thunder Punch/Ice Punch

 

[Talpr0ne]

Did you know? In order to play the role of a depressed and criminally insane person in the movie Joker, Joaquin Phoenix played Espathra mirrors in Pokébilities.

Now that it was banned in OU, I don't see a good reason to not ban Espathra in this meta. For the most part it functions the same as in OU, but Opportunist can allow it to spiral out of control much faster if it gets a good read or in certain matchups, namely Skeledirge which relies on Torch Song to defeat Espathra when behind a substitute, or the aforementioned mirror. The Opportunist reads can potentially be done against any Pokémon but are safer against Garganacl, which doesn't threaten you that much if you get the wrong read, and gives you a massive headstart if you can somehow copy Curse or Iron Defense. If you think you have what it takes to star in the next Joker movie you could even run Mirror Herb and double the effect of Opportunist this way.

I would also like to comment about other Pokémon:
Sure it can't use Rest anymore, but on the flip side Taunt sets are now immune to Spore, and it can't reverse Intimidate anymore with Defiant because of Inner Focus, but that also makes it immune to flinching. Annihilape is in general a Pokémon that would be basically the same even with no ability, so it's probably still too good even with three mildly anti-synergistic abilities at once.
Basically the same as in OU, still allows the same degeneracy.
These get no new ability but are still basically unwallable, even if you run Azumarill.

In general the meta should follow closely the OU banlist barring specific cases, it is basically OU+ as far as mechanics go and banned Pokémon with the new mechanics tend to range from unchanged but still too much to absolutely insane.

 

[typhlosion787]

Sure it can't use Rest anymore, but on the flip side Taunt sets are now immune to Spore, and it can't reverse Intimidate anymore with Defiant because of Inner Focus, but that also makes it immune to flinching. Annihilape is in general a Pokémon that would be basically the same even with no ability, so it's probably still too good even with three mildly anti-synergistic abilities at once.

These are definitely good points in terms of keeping Ape banned. Ape will always be very controversial, but I personally believe some room should be allowed to test it currently in it's significantly nerfed state before a decision is made. Ape is definitely still going to be strong if it does end up staying, but at the same time, not nearly as strong as some may expect. The main argument is that now, burn and para can actually be used as counterplay. Yes, Taunt, I know. However, there are pokemon faster than Ape that run Wisp or T Wave on some of their sets like Cinderace and Dragapult. To add onto that, multiple opportunities to status on the switch open up as the level of play increases. Ape now either has to have a Heal Bell/Aromatherapy partner or run Lum Berry if you don't play perfect against a hazard spreader. However, even if you don't have a cleric, just the Lum Berry alone can do a ton. Yes, it's a single use item, but it's a get out of jail free card from one of the few things that holds Ape back in this meta that continues to still be useful after item consumption because it lets you switch in on Knock more, powering up your Rage Fist. Even with the nerf, there's definitely good cases to be made against Ape, though. Unresisted stab combination until Hisuian Zoroark, unparalleled snowball capability better than all Moxie users, surprisingly great bulk, one of the most broken moves imaginable, etc. Despite the nerfs, there's definitely a chance that Annihilape could still prove to be too strong.

Edit: Another thing that I think should be mentioned, this is honestly kind of similar to the Conk situation last generation in one specific way. One of the most common arguments is counterplay through repeated residual and chip damage throughout the game. However, much like Conkeldurr, Annihilape has a damn strong Drain Punch to help heal off smaller hits and repeated blows from hazards. Let's not mention how switching in on a T Spike is actually really beneficial for Ape because it prevents burn and para. Other than that, Ape and Conk aren't anything alike, but I felt it was important to mention that residual damage adding up over time as counterplay to a pokemon won't be too successful if the pokemon has a way to circumvent the issue without much effort

 

[typhlosion787]

After a long wait, it has finally arrived. I apologize about it taking so long, but here it is, my post-Espathra and Chien-Pao ban, pre-Home threat list. Amount of description for each mon varies wildly depending on how much I had to say about it while writing. If you feel like there are any mons I missed, feel free to ask and I will either add them or explain why I chose not to add them. Keep in mind, this document is only detailing the pokemon that abuse having all their abilities at once. Obviously things like Great Tusk are going to be good no matter what, so I decided to keep out threats that don't take advantage of the OM gimmick (also, before it's asked, I left out Ape because its highly anti-synergistic ability combination.

Without further adieu, Typh's gen 9 pokebilities threat list as of February 22nd, 2023)

Pokebilities Threat List

 

[typhlosion787]

With a constantly shifting metagame comes changing threats, and as of now, one of the biggest threats in the meta has to be Azumarill. Out of the 44 pokemon listed on my prior threat list alone, Azu hits 18 super effectively with its stab. This doesn't even begin to include the pokemon it'd 2HKO with coverage or easily switch into or scare out. As such, Azu checks are obviously in high demand, and with this being the case, one specific mon has risen to be the best at staving it off, Toxapex. Of course, we have multiple pokemon that resist Azu's stab combination such as Amoongus or Clodsire, but what sets Toxapex apart from those two is its ice resistance as compared to a weakness. This means that unless Azu decides to run something like Tera Blast, Double Edge or the never seen Bulldoze, it will not be able to do major damage to Pex. While Clod and Amoongus are able to counter non-Ice Spinner variants of Azumarill, Spinner is still an extremely common move on Azu specifically to hit those two. This is especially dangerous on Choice Band sets which sacrifice versatility for immediate power, letting Azu get past Clod and Amoongus even easier, making Pex the go to option for an Azu counter. Even despite all the heavy nerfs it received, Pex is still a big defensive threat, especially in pokebilities. Being able to spread poison reliably with either T Spikes or Toxics that are impossible to miss due to its poison type along with absorbing opposing T Spikes and being immune to both paralysis and poison (if not from a Glimmora or Salazzle) is also a big deal in granting Pex more longevity to go with it's utility. Yes, Pex lost Scald, Knock, and got it's Recover PP cut in half. I'm not going to act like that isn't a huge deal. However, Pex does still have solid tools. Haze to remove Belly Drum Azu's boosts, Chilling Water to lower it's attack, Toxic to put it on a timer, it's as crazy as ever defensive stats, Toxapex is still a great pokemon, just not as unbalanced as before. Of course, there will be returning pokemon in the DLC that will take the spotlight off of Azu and Pex, but for now, both are absolute staples of the meta that you need to be prepared for

 

[clovre]

this guy is insane im shocked ive seen nobody talk about it

Magnezone @ Life Orb/Leftovers/Rocky Helmet
Ability: Magnet Pull/Sturdy/Analytic
Tera Type: Electric
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Thunder Wave
- Volt Switch